Who here doesnt like Wal-Mart? Options

[BlackCelicaGT94]

I dont know if you guys know what all goes into putting a Wal-Mart up but my goodness theres always a fight in every city to keep it out of their city.


Do you guys have any problems with Wal-Mart?


go to Walmart facts\

they have such a bad rap but i personally see nothing wrong with the company. They are an excellent company for wifes or family members of those who live on military bases. Gives people a chance to work.

[BlackCelicaGT94]

Wal-Mart Daily News

A daily guide to what's happening in your Wal-Mart

September 6, 2005



Katrina Relief Report
EDITOR'S NOTE: We will continue to send you updates on Wal-Mart’s Katrina Relief Efforts over the next few days. We'd like to include stories about any members of the Wal-Mart family who have helped their fellow associates deal with hardships inflicted by the storm. As you learn of them, please send these stories to us at public.relations@wal-mart.com.

As of this morning, 17 stores are still closed (10 Supercenters, 4 SAM'S CLUBS, 3 Wal-Mart Stores). We have 7 facilities that are operating on generator power. This is a tremendous improvement from the 126 facilities that were closed at the peak last week when Hurricane Katrina struck.


A total of 89 facilities have reported damage. Nine have major damage, 41 have moderate damage and 39 have minor damage or loss of merchandise loss.


Currently, Wal-Mart is allowing 13 of its available properties to be used for the relief efforts in several capacities -- staging areas, shelters, food bank, police command centers, etc.


Currently, we have two temporary pharmacies in operation. The portable pharmacy in downtown Waveland, Miss., has filled over 1,000 prescriptions in the last two days.


We have 6 portable ISD satellite systems in operation to allow our registers and other systems to work.


Company-wide relief efforts

Information on Katrina’s impact on Wal-Mart and the company’s aid to storm victims is available for associates, customers, journalists and the general public on www.walmartfacts.com.


The company has made contact with more than 65% of its 34,000 associates affected by the storm, including some who have been found in the various evacuee shelters. Wal-Mart is committed to provide work for displaced associates who want to work in open stores.


A total of 6,156 associates have received more than $1.5 million, including initial cash assistance paid out from the company's Associate Disaster Relief Fund through the Wal-Mart Foundation. These associates, who represent 65 different Wal-Marts, SAM'S CLUBS or distribution centers, have come into 750 facilities in 30 states to receive assistance.


To date, 960 displaced associates had found work in their new locations at Wal-Mart and SAM’S CLUB facilities.


The Associate Disaster Hotline has so far taken 12,244 calls (Wednesday 1,128, Thursday 2,312, Friday 2,614, Saturday 2,267, Sunday 1,891, Monday 2,075).


The Online Emergency Contact Registry, which Wal-Mart has set up to give customers and associates access to e-mail facilities at in-store kiosks and on the Web, has had more than 959,675 visits. More than 9,618 associates and customers have posted messages.




In the News

Former Presidents Bush And Clinton Hold A News Conference Regarding Disaster Relief For Hurricane Katrina Victims - Bush: "We're announcing today a fund that will take this outpouring of generosity on to the next level. Recovery is going to take years. We need to help these Gulf Coast communities and, of course, the great city of New Orleans, help them get back on their feet, and we need to help their citizens get their lives back. And standing behind us today -- or with us today is a group of CEOs who came here to help pledge their support. All of them are being -- they're national in scope, all of them being incredibly generous. But I don't think anyone would mind if I singled out the chairman and CEO of Wal-Mart, Lee Scott, who is right here. He told us that they gave the Bush-Clinton fund a total of $23 million ... $15 million from the company and then $8 million more from the Walton family, the marvelous philanthropists that they are."

Clinton: "I, too, want to thank Lee Scott and Wal-Mart. And I want to mention something that they are doing because this, I hope, will give some guidance to our members of Congress -- Hillary and Senator Obama and our House members who are here -- go back to work and wonder what they should do. They still have over 20 stores that are closed and so when the employees of those stores are relocated to other communities, even in other states, they're given a job at the nearest Wal-Mart store, wherever they go, wherever they locate anywhere in America." Transcript of news conference (used with permission)

<<Bush And Clinton.doc>>

Wal-Mart , Waltons pledge millions - Wal-Mart and the Walton Family Foundation have pledged many more millions to help with the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. The company has pledged $15 million in an "outright cash commitment that we made to the relief effort headed by former President Bush and former President Clinton," Wal-Mart spokeswoman Andrea Rader said Monday. Separately, the Walton Family Foundation is providing $8 million to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund. The Walton Family Foundation has already donated an additional $7 million to organizations such as The Salvation Army, America’s Second Harvest and Foundation for the Mid-South. In addition, an online message board is helping associates locate and communicate with their friends and family members. As of Monday, the message board received more than 8,100 posts (4,800 by associates) and more than 800,000 hits, according to Walmartfacts.com. Benton County Daily Record (AR) (used with permission)


<<Wal-Mart Waltons pledge.doc>>

Creating a Shelter in 2 days - If you go out the door marked "Tire, Lube & Express Entrance" and make a left, you'll find the men's and women's showers. Walk up front to the former pharmacy, past dozens and dozens of floor spaces marked for beds, and you'll be where you can get personal hygiene items. It's all a sign that McKinney is prepared. When the city's fire chief, Mark Wallace, heard at 10:45 p.m. Thursday that his community could be receiving hundreds of Hurricane Katrina evacuees, McKinney officials, businesses and volunteers swung into action. Attention turned to the former Wal-Mart on U.S. Highway 380 – slated for demolition in three weeks – as a shelter site for about 250 evacuees. "This is the epitome of the private sector coming together to support the efforts of the city," Marshal Nickles said Monday afternoon amid volunteers and evacuees. "We put out a call for electricians, and soon we had guys walking up with tool belts." Kim Lake, a co-manager at McKinney's new Wal-Mart Supercenter that opened July 20, said the community came together without federal or state help. The Dallas Morning News (used with permission)

<<creating_shelter.doc>>



Wal-Mart at Forefront of Hurricane Relief - At 8 a.m. on Wednesday, as New Orleans filled with water, Wal-Mart chief executive H. Lee Scott Jr. called an emergency meeting of his top lieutenants and warned them he did not want a "measured response" to the hurricane. "I want us to respond in a way appropriate to our size and the impact we can have," he said, according to an executive who attended the meeting. At the time, Wal-Mart had pledged $2 million to the relief efforts. "Should it be $10 million?" Scott asked. Over the next few days, Wal-Mart's response to Katrina -- an unrivaled $20 million in cash donations, 1,500 truckloads of free merchandise, food for 100,000 meals and the promise of a job for every one of its displaced workers -- has turned the chain into an unexpected lifeline for much of the Southeast and earned it near-universal praise at a time when the company is struggling to burnish its image. While state and federal officials have come under harsh criticism for their handling of the storm's aftermath, Wal-Mart is being held up as a model for logistical efficiency and nimble disaster planning, which have allowed it to quickly deliver staples such as water, fuel and toilet paper to thousands of evacuees. "Wal-Mart has raised the ante for every company in the country," said Adam Hanft, chief executive of Hanft Unlimited Inc., a New York branding and marketing firm. "This is going to change the face of corporate giving." The Washington Post (used with permission)

<<Wal-Mart at forefront.doc>>

Wal-Mart efforts to go chic buck tradition - Wal-Mart became the biggest company in the world by stacking merchandise high and selling it cheaply. But now the firm wants to gain a reputation for being classy as well as affordable. Wal-Mart CEO Scott said in June that Wal-Mart will have to only tweak its business model to capture more high-income shoppers. Scott said Wal-Mart must simply reposition more expensive products like high-definition televisions and women’s apparel. "I don’t see why you’d want to limit yourself," he said. "I think we can be relevant to all people." Advertisements taken out in national magazines show the effort Wal-Mart is making — and the challenges it faces. The Bentonville retailer bought ads for the first time in trendy Vogue magazine, spending an estimated $800,000 for spots in the September issue. Wal-Mart has committed to buy another 48 pages in Vogue next year. Arkansas Democrat Gazette (used with permission)

<<chic.doc>>

Union split takes pressure off Wal-Mart - A year ago, labor leaders were relishing the prospect of a major bid to organize their toughest adversary, Wal-Mart. But a major rift in the AFL-CIO that produced two warring camps in late July has almost certainly derailed that mission and threatened other important labor initiatives. For the past 50 years, since the AFL-CIO was formed in 1955, the percentage of the work force represented by unions has steadily declined from more than 35 percent to 12.5 percent last year, including only 7.9 percent of the private-sector work force. ''We have seen that the unions are very fragmented now,'' said Wal-Mart spokeswoman Christi Gallagher. ''We just don't feel like (labor's threatened campaign)... is anything we need to be concerned about.'' AFL-CIO officials say the planned multimillion-dollar Wal-Mart campaign is almost certain to be scuttled because the major beneficiary would be one of the defecting unions, the UFCW. The Washington Post (used with permission)