Wal-Mart on PR Offensive to Repair Image

[joeunderdog]

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT - news) is tired of critics who say it is a behemoth bent on destroying small-town America, driving down wages and shipping jobs to foreign sweat shops.

Wal-Mart, Fortune magazine's "most admired company," is also among the most sued. Dozens of cases claiming sex discrimination and wage violations have stained its image. Editorials deplore how low-paid Wal-Mart workers must sign up for welfare to make ends meet.

snip

Officials at the world's largest company have started firing off letters to the editor responding to critical news articles and editorials. Once-reticent Wal-Mart executives are speaking out more in the hopes of cleaning up the world's largest retailer's stained image.

snip

"They're going to continue to get beat up as long as they basically have a reputation for being unfair or unreasonable to their employees," he said. "All the damage control in the world can't help them unless their policies change.

more...
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=568&ncid=749&e=1&u=/nm/20040201/bs_nm/bizwalmart_pr_dc

What they're sellin, I ain't buyin. Shop Costco and BJ's for employee-friendly bargains.

[Bluzmann57]

1. If Wal Mart is so concerned about their image

then maybe they should try doing things differently. Things like treating employees better, keeping alive the spirit of competition, not demanding that artists censor their material before it hits Wal Mart shelves, stuff like that. Until then, there is an all out boycott at this guys house.

[benfranklin1776]

5. Precisely.

I believe this technique is referred to as "putting lipstick on the hog." Amazing isn't it, how this company will spend whatever it takes to boost its PR image but spend nothing to correct the policies which have caused the harm to its employees and to small town America. The true corporate ethos on display, hide your misdeeds no matter what the cost. No wonder it is the Fortune 500's "most admired" company. They admire it for the ruthless way it dehumanizes its employees, flaunts labor and antidiscrimination laws and crushes any attempt by its workers to secure a more fair payment for their labors by collective bargaining. Boycott the hell out of them I say until they drop the PR and focus on treating their workers more humanely and decently. I wager it will be a cold day in Hades before that happens. They would rather pay the PR firms then their workers and suppliers.

[saigon68]

24. "putting lipstick on the hog."

WalMart should not be compared with a fine grain eating animal. Walmart has NO IMAGE to improve as one cannot make a corpse walk across the room.

The Mother Fuckers who run WalMart and the corporation itself should be compared with the Blood Sucking Count DRACULA or SATAN himself.

</Rant>

edit to take out most of the profanity

[metisnation]

37. Walmart

who would trust any spin a management would put on their mis-management. I haven't shopped at Walmart in 5 years and will continue to boycott this job destroying entitity. Everything that is on their shelves is an exploit of cheap overseas labor.

[leesa]

2. It's funny. They don't seem to be able to correct any of those gross

misperceptions we all have. Why don't they provide some data on their hiring, promotion and compensation practices, instead of random testimonials.

[bleedingheart]

12. bingo! why not let the IRS turn over the data on their employee's

W2's...

because I wouldn't trust them to turn it over without them doctoring it first.

[joeunderdog]

35. The Walmart family members all rank amongst the richest Americans.

But they pay their employees below a living wage. If they want to keep their merchandise price-friendly, let the profits take the hit instead of blaming employee benefits. There's plenty of money there.

Walmart is tasty to investors BECAUSE they run their business to optimize profit rather than employee benefits. Their business plan attracts investors simply for this reason and because they're good at it. Other employee-friendly stores are criticized on Wall St. because they refuse to compress the benefit packages of their workers. This practice is openly frowned upon nowadays.

What happened to Americans being for Americans?

When you buy stock from companies who mistreat their employees, you are supporting that business approach.

[calimary]

36. Why don't they start showing proof of how they're respecting

the rights of small ma & pa businesses to stay in existance, and not be priced OUT OF IT???

Why don't they start showing how their price slashing forces their suppliers to eat their own, or shit on their other clients because Walmart's delivery orders have to be honored first? That way they risk going out of business themselves.

Walmart's fucked. Or rather, it SHOULD BE fucked. Deserves to be fucked.

And as another poster put it, here, why don't they spend what they're spending now on PR, and put it toward their employees instead?

There's no Walmart near me. They're trying to pull a fast one a few miles down the freeway, in Inglewood. But even if there were one right in the neighborhood, I would NEVER go there.

[mopinko]

3. i'm ready

there are no bj's around here, but there is a costco. i have to admit that with a big family, i do go to sam's club. it's more for the package sizes that the prices. but i am ready to change, my conscience has been bothering me since i read jim hightower's "thieves in high places"

[cosmicdot]

4. Fortune magazine's "most admired company" thingy is a bit out of touch

and needs to be changed as well, or, at least, add some asterisks*

like

* but not according to the employees or customers

[napi21]

7. Maybe a new President will make them change.

I don't think Walmart will ever change it's policies on it's own, but all the Dem Candidates have some plan to make it more expensive to import products and export jobs. If we can get the message out to enough Americans and convince them they need a BIG CHANGE in Washington, Co's like Walmart will change because it won't be profitable to keep the status quo.

[mn9driver]

6. One of the most anti-Union retailers in the country.

They spend a lot of time and energy keeping their employees afraid to even breathe the word.

http://www.ufcw.org/issues_and_actions/walmart_workers_campaign_info/index.cfm

When they lose in court for breaking labor laws, they shrug, file an appeal and then it's business as usual.

[bleedingheart]

8. "most admired" by despots around the world

hahahaha

[K8-EEE]

9. Those WalMart "We're So Nice" Commercials

PUKE!! I mean if you didn't KNOW they were evil, those would tip it off.

I love the management-looking guy talking about how his sick toddler got the best treatment, Mayo Clinic etc....everyone knows that less than 1/2 of the Wallmart employees get health benefits!

What if one of his underlings' kids had the same condition? OH WELL! Hold The Mayo for them...

Then there is one where all sorts of smiley African American employees are saying "WalMart brought pride to our community!" Yeah right....they drove out all the family businesses! That's pride for ya..

[Elidor]

10. Now this is hilarious

a district manager sent a letter to The Salt Lake Tribune to "share some things that aren't so bad about us"

I hear a new advertising slogan in there:
Wal-Mart - Not as Evil as You Think We Aretm

[Mari333]

11. Most admired company? my ass

Most admired for slave labour, corporate short term profits and screwing over every small town .
They will never see me in their store.

[colonel odis]

13. i like low prices as much as anyone else, but .......

i think the bad far outweighs the good at wal-mart.

locking employees inside overnight...... firing long-time employes when they reach certain tenure threshholds ..... using illegals to clean ...... adding immensely to the trade deficity with china ...... destruction of thousands of mom and pop businesses.

no thanks. roll back all you want. preferably back into the sewer from whence you came.

[bluestateguy]

14. My Wal-Mart boycott continues

They would rather spend millions on publicists and slick advertising, rather than spend the money on actually improving their treatment of workers.

[reprobate]

15. There's one way to really hurt walmart.

If you own any of their stock, dump it. That gets their attention.

And it's becoming known. My broker told me of a big client of his who held their stock, and told him to dump it. He wouldn't support a company with that kind of employee treatment. My broker said he's not the first to say this.

[Fleshdancer]

16. This is an insult to the consumer

Change the way you do business WalMart. Spending millions of dollars on PR isn't going to change a damn thing.

[onehandle]

17. Good luck...

The damage is done.

Anyway, we're a Target family.

They carry a better variety of higher quality items. A local TV station did a price comparison study. They purchased two shopping carts full with same or similar items from both stores.

The Walmart receipt was barely one percent cheaper than Target. And there were more name brand items available for the Target cart.

Target does give cash to the GOP (normal for most retail), but not like Walmart and their billionaire owners.

[kath]

18. Target gives a higher percentage of its profits to charity than any other

retail corporation. And they give a higher percentage of their political donations to Dems than a lot of other corporations.

Agree that Target's prices are quite good. SuperTarget's prices on groceries are good as well -- on some items they are even cheaper than our local "super discount grocery store" that people travel *miles* to shop at.

[Judi Lynn]

19. Thanks, kath!

Glad to hear this. I've noticed their stores are also a lot cleaner.

[Dulcinea]

20. We're Target shoppers too.

Much better quality merchandise & not a lot of phony smiling creepy people. I detested Wal-Mart at first for that reason alone.

[Must_B_Free]

21. I avoid Walmart like the plague

and I tell everyone I know not to shop there.

[HEyHEY]

22. Ha, my column last week was about what a bunch O bastards they are.

Wonder if I'll hear from them. Snicker.

[llmart]

23. Never shopped there.

never will. Remember everyone, in this country you vote with your dollars. Think every time you buy something about what you are supporting. Also, ask yourself "do I REALLY need this item"? We have to stop buying stuff that ends up in landfills. It always amazes me how people justify the crap they buy like they couldn't live without it. Practice voluntary simplicity.

[Piperay]

25. Was in one ONCE and

was NOT impressed, walked right out. Luckily where I live the nearest is miles and miles away (well over and hour and a half) and things are so competitive here they haven't even attempted to move in close.

[sendero]

26. It's funny how in this day and age...

... it's all about a PR offensive.

It would never occur to the fucks running Wal-Mart to actually do things differently. They can afford big-bucks PR but they can't afford to pay their employees a living wage, stop making them work off the clock, etc.

The rest of what I'd like to see would just get my post deleted.

[proud patriot]

27. Fuck WalMart

they are trying to get into uncorperated areas
where I live . Trying to defeat the County
Board of supervisers are fighting them with a
ballot measure this spring .

[saigon68]

33. Bastards

what more can you expectfrom the Whale Mart

[mouse7]

28. Time to send in the union organizers. Unionize Walmart

It would have to be nationally. All the Walmart stores across the country would have to be organized for a union vote at the same time. None of this store-by-store mess. That just allows Walmart to mobilize all it's assets against a small pool of activists.

[alittlelark]

32. I would love to be part of the group that

helps to arrange that!!!:evilgrin:

[pinniped]

29. You mean this is not an accurate statement?

"is a behemoth bent on destroying small-town America, driving down wages and shipping jobs to foreign sweat shops."

My dollars don't see the inside of that crapper either.

[patricia92243]

30. Just think of the money wasted on a PR campaign that could be put to use

to provide benefits to their employees.

Oh by the way- Combined - the Walton family would be the richest "person" in America. If that were me, and I thought my fortune were buit on the backs of my employees - I would not live in America to be counted so weathy. Have they no shame?

[alittlelark]

31. I haven't shopped Walmart for almost 2 years.

When I had my eyes forcibly opened by friends. Costco donates 100% of their political dollars to Dem's - I'm sure someone out there has the link to one of the groups that track donations.
I'm still a bit in the 'bronze age' as far as tech savvy.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

34. China holds the mortage on our national debt! WalMart is making us Chinese

just take a gander at our countrty's stars and stripes "made in China"....this is no joke ...just as the mortage company holding my loan really owns my house so does China own the US! and WalMart makes this all possible...enjoy your the morphing into chinese.

www.walmartwatch.org