Wal-Mart Reshapes Its Image
Last updated Thursday, June 5, 2008 5:10 PM CDT in Opinion
Wal-Mart was under fire on several fronts during last year's shareholders meeting.
The retail giant was criticized for its treatment of employees in regards to pay and health care, and cities large and small were denying permits to build stores.
What a difference a year makes.
As thousands of shareholders gather for the annual meeting today in Fayetteville, Wal-Mart is riding a new wave of innovation and appreciation.
The introduction of $4 prescriptions for some drugs was heralded as a great humanitarian step by a corporation. Lower income families and those living on fixed incomes could now afford prescriptions that before were often out of reach. Senior citizens living on meager Social Security earnings no longer had to choose between eating and buying some of the prescriptions they needed.
Later Wal-Mart expanded the program, becoming the industry leader in low-cost prescription drugs.
Wal-Mart also enhanced its venture in "green" stores. There are Wal-Mart stores with solar cells embedded in skylights; runoff waste water is captured and reused; heat from refrigeration units is used to warm water for the bathroom sinks; waste oil from the garage and food-service areas is burned in radiant floor-heating systems and energy-efficient LED lights that wink on and off depending on the amount of sunlight coming through the skylights of the store. The new Sam's Warehouse store in Fayetteville is an environmentally-friendly "green" store.
A change in image advertising has put the world's largest retailer back on solid footing with many Americans.
Shoppers, who in a time of economic stress are looking for the biggest bang for their shrinking dollar, are finding their money seems go farther at Sam Walton's creation.
The annual shareholder meeting is normally a mixed blessing for Northwest Arkansas and this year is no exception.
Hotels, restaurants and other retail businesses welcome the 20,000 Wal-Mart visitors to the area. Some Fayetteville residents complain about the increased traffic and the presence of so many people who aren't Hog fans in for a weekend of football.
The perceived shortage of hotel rooms and traffic aside, Wal-Mart is one of the best corporate neighbors an area could have.
The philanthropy of Wal-Mart and the Walton family is well known in Northwest Arkansas and around the world.
The Walton Arts Center, the Walton School of Business at the University of Arkansas, and Crystal Bridges world-class museum are just the tip of graciousness of the company Sam Walton started in Bentonville. The gifts and donations, large and small, that the corporation, its employees and the Walton family give to non-profit organizations and other entities is beyond measure. The number of lives enriched by such gregarious giving is impossible to measure.
We are proud of many of our corporate neighbors in Northwest Arkansas, like Wal-Mart, Tyson Foods and J.B. Hunt.
It was the entrepreneurial drive of Sam Walton, John Tyson and J.B. Hunt and others that helped transform rural Northwest Arkansas into a growing metropolitan area that still receives high marks for its quality of life. We hope that spirit continues to be celebrated in Northwest Arkansas for many years to come.
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