Its been a tough year for Wal-Mart. Critics are really turning up the heat, stocks prices have fallen drastically and then the infamous health memo got leaked, which really stirred up the feces.
Wal-Mart started its own promotional website which is a 24-7 advertisement on how beneficial and necessary Wal-Mart is to the world. The site claims to be defending Wal-Mart from the attacks from critics put it is actually disgustingly prideful of itself. The front page reminds us of their charitable and caring ways with as many symbols and statements as they could possibly squish on it, such as:
- Roger, a smiling, handicapped Wal-Mart manager (complete with visible crutch) beside of the words "Wal-Mart associates tell their side of the story"
- A video with an eagle flying through pristine blue skies and over green mountains, with a little quote about mother nature at the end and the words "Improving Environmental Sustainability" below
- A sign that says "Wal-Mart saves working families $2,329 a year" with links to a "Economic Impact Research Conference" which offers an in-depth look at Wal-Mart and society
- A ticker that relays messages such as "Wal-Mart serves people around the world" and "We require our contractors and subcontractors to follow all laws"
- A section devoted to news, which currently offers a statement "regarding special interest video" and says "Mr. Greenwald has done a disservice to his audience"
- A reminder of the Wal-Mart hurricane response with a link to updates about Wal-Mart support of relief efforts for hurricanes Wilma, Rita, and Katrina
In defending Wal-Mart, people have used the example of how Wal-Mart responded during hurricane Katrina, stating that they trucked in loads of supplies, donated $17 million dollars, and offered all the displaced associates jobs in other stores. Well, we were glad that they did something, but before you get teary-eyed and weepy about what how noble and generous this is, let's consider the facts.
First, that might seem like a crapload of money to most people (it does to us) but it is barely a drop in the bucket for Wal-Mart – in fact it only represents .005% of their annual revenues. As an industrial analyst blog states, "If the average American citizen were to gauge their donation by the benchmark set by Wal-Mart they would donate only $1.65 to the relief effort."
Hmmm…. people who live paycheck to paycheck donated hundreds of dollars – literally taking the shirt off their back and the food out of their mouth to help their fellow humans. We are not impressed with Wal-Mart's pocket-change donation.
Although Wal-Mart has had apple time and opportunity to offer compassionate (or even basic) care to its employees, it has only done so when the media is watching and ready to take notice of their so-called good deeds.
Such was the case when they made a touching commercial about how they paid for an associate's son to have heart surgery at the Mayo Clinic (even though most associates either don't qualify for or can't afford the health coverage Wal-Mart offers).
You can bank on the fact that the Wal-Mart executives knew exactly what a great visual image those Wal-Mart trucks would make, all lined up and ready to deliver supplies. They wanted their name in the news for doing a good deed, especially since critics are really starting to spit venom.
We also have to consider the seemingly generous offer that Wal-Mart made to its hurricane-stricken associates. How realistic is this offer? It's not. We'd really like to know how many Wal-Mart employees were affected by the hurricane and what percentage of them were actually able to transfer to another store within a reasonable time-frame.
When someone has lost everything and is dealing with a devastating tragedy you have to ask common sense questions like: Where would they live? How would they get to work? How would they feed and clothe themselves in the beginning? Who would care for their children for free? How would they be able to travel to – and work in – another community with no money and no car?
We guess that Wal-Mart analysts knew that this would be an risk-free offer – empty and meaningless in the real world. It made them look generous and concerned, but by no means did it actually help a majority of the employees affected.
In August Liza Featherstone of Salon.com wrote:
"Firing whistle-blowers. Discriminating against women (and, most recently, black truck drivers). Violating child labor laws. Locking workers into stores overnight. Mooching off taxpayers. Disregarding local zoning laws. Mistreating immigrant janitors. Abusing young Bangladeshi women. Paying poverty-level wages in the United States. Destroying small-town America. If you read any newspapers – or even watch 'The Daily Show' – you can probably guess which company has been grabbing headlines for these and countless other charges and offenses."
Now the upcoming movie (commonly referred to as "the Wal-Mart movie") has caused Wal-Mart executives a massive stroke. Their response has been to create a war room complete with first-rate advisors, who live nearby in corporate apartments and arrive to work precisely at 7am every morning.
This team includes people from the Clinton and Reagan administrations, others who have experience in grooming presidential hopefuls like John Kerry, as well as people who have promoted the tobacco industry. They are all skilled at creating polished, shiny-happy images, putting a positive spin on controversies, and managing damage control.
At the first sign of trouble the team is ready to issue press releases, post web updates and makes phone calls in an attempt to neutralize any criticism. In some cases the war room – dubbed Action Alley – has used preemptive strikes, moving to hold press conferences before a potential negative event.
Such was the case in late September when union groups announced that they would hold press conferences in St. Louis. The Wal-Mart spin machine gathered up a few sympathetic voices and held a press conference to tell the world what a great place Wally World really is.
There are a few sites you can visit to learn more about Wal-Mart business practices. One is Wal-Mart Watch and another is Wake-Up Wal-Mart. Yes, they do offer a critical view of Wal-Mart. However, we feel that this would barely begin to balance the scales, considering the fact that Wal-Mart spends millions each year on ad campaigns touting the virtues of their company and is currently trying to up the ante.
There are hundreds of articles that discuss Wal-Mart. You can find them on sites run by National Public Radio, The New York Times, CNN, and PBS – as well as other online and printed newspapers and magazines. Just do a Google search and let the information flow.
