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Extra
Wal-Mart goes on offensive; foes, too
Retail giant woos media for the first time as it puts its image-repair campaign into high gear. Unions and hostile communities compete for the spotlight.
By Reuters
Wal-Mart Stores, the world's largest retailer, on Tuesday brought journalists to its Rogers, Ark., headquarters in a first-ever media event as it stepped up efforts to repair an image tarnished by claims of worker discrimination and anti-union practices.
But a labor union and other groups used the event as an opportunity to publicize their complaints against the company, holding meetings of their own in Wal-Mart's (WMT, news, msgs) hometown of Bentonville in northwest Arkansas.
The company was tight-lipped about the message it wanted to deliver over the two-day event, but scheduled speakers included Chief Executive Lee Scott and Chief Financial Officer Tom Schoewe.
Wal-Mart, whose annual sales of $256 billion accounted for about 5% of all U.S. retail sales in 2004, also planned to give reporters a rare peek at some of its operations.
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The event comes in the midst of a move by Wal-Mart, which has been beset by lawsuits and claims of uncompetitive practices, to set the terms of the debate over its image.
Competition for the spotlight
Wal-Mart often faces protests from community groups that claim the company drives smaller competitors out of business when entering a new town.
Indeed, a community protest group that last year helped defeat the opening of a new Wal-Mart store in the Inglewood, Calif., and representatives of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union were slated to state their cases against the company on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Coalition for a Better Inglewood planned to hold a news conference at the same hotel as Wal-Mart's event and challenge Scott to prove that his company supports communities.
"We believe that the hundreds of millions of dollars Wal-Mart is investing in public relations would be far better spent on addressing the problems Wal-Mart has created for America's communities,'' Rev. Altagracia Perez, a member of the Inglewood-based group, said in a statement.
The union, which has failed to unionize any Wal-Mart stores in the United States, in an e-mail said its meetings in Arkansas would address the " 'high cost' behind Wal-Mart's price.''
Spate of bad news
Wal-Mart in January launched an image campaign, including full-page advertisements in more than 100 newspapers, touting the jobs it plans to create this year, its employee benefit packages, and the diversity of its work force. It also started a Web site to support the ad campaign.
But the campaign has been overshadowed by other events. Wal-Mart recently agreed to pay a record $11 million to settle a civil investigation by U.S. authorities into allegations it knowingly hired floor-cleaning contractors who employed illegal aliens.
It also ousted former Vice Chairman Thomas Coughlin over a company probe into unauthorized use of corporate gift cards and personal reimbursements that has also been reported to federal prosecutors.
Wal-Mart, whose annual sales of $256 billion are equivalent to the gross domestic product of Austria, in February alone had total sales of $22.37 billion.
But despite the company's size, its shares have not performed well. As of Monday, they have fallen 15% in the past 52 weeks and are trading near their low for the year.
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