“Maybe the most important way in which we at Wal-Mart believe in giving something back is through our commitment to using the power of this enormous enterprise as a force for change.” - Sam Walton
How come Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton thought Wal-Mart could be a force for change yet current Wal-Mart supporters don't believe Wal-Mart has any power/responsibility for change? Any ideas on how Wal-Mart could use their enormous enterprise to institute change?
2 comments:
The Walton family could start by behaving more like Bill & Melinda Gates or Paul Newman & Joanne Woodward or Warren Buffet or Ted Turner.
Wal-Mart has the capacity to address real concerns - living wage and benefits for large corporation employees... and still make a profit - maybe it could lower it's astronomical pay for it's high end management so the rest of it's employees can have a reasonable wage. Attention to it's suppliers so they can make a profit AND pay a living wage and benefits to it's employees. Or maybe go into the third world countries and pay THOSE EMPLOYEES a decent wage rather than the sweat shop slave labor wages that Wal-Mart pays so Wal-Mart can have it's "low prices... always"
Then the company could start to direct some of it's hundreds of millions that it spends on public relations to actually address some of the concerns that forces Wal-Mart to do public relations campaigns.
These are basic places Wal-Mart can start - then they can begin to actually get creative with how they act as a good corporate citizen.
Wal-Mart is not interested in being a force for change. They really have only 1 agenda. That agenda is to build more stores. Apparently, they do not know how to do anything else. If they had their way their would be a Wal-Mart on every street corner in America and every independent retailer would be out of business. And if Wal-Mart didn't carry it, that would be your problem, not theirs. The business world has been CONSTANTLY CHANGING, but Wal-Mart has been sticking to the same business model--keep building more stores.
Bill and Melinda Gates give about 58% of their income to charity. Wal-Mart's giving doesn't even come close that. Wal-Mart claims they have given about 7 million to New York. (I think that's the figure I read in the ADE commentary.) But one will never know where that money ACTUALLY WENT BECAUSE WAL-MART'S BOOKS WON'T TELL YOU THOSE THINGS. Much of Wal-Marts giving goes to Republicans and other politicians who support BIG BUSINESS! And when they do give to someone it is a measly $1000!! Don't expect more from them. Even Sam said in his autobiography that beyond a few charities Wal-Mart doesn't give to anyone. And what was his reason? The stockholders and associates would suffer! Baloney!
Wal-Mart could easily be a force for change--but that is something they are not interested in doing. The only change they know is how to devestate a business district by closing all of their competitors. It is time someone addressed this company for what they really are--A MONOPOLY!
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