Last year, Wal-Mart and its associates were the largestsingle contributors to this campaignat. Were also a big contributor to the Childrens Miracle Network Telethonwhichsupports locally directed childrens hospitals. We believe in locallydirected charities, so we have a matching grant program for associates who want to raise money forcharities of their choice. We strongly believe in UnitedWay becausein spite of all the publicity it received recently for some problems in the nationalofficemost all the money thats collected in these campaigns is directed locally. In fact, we keep our United Way goal sign in theyard right outside my office here so everybody can see how were doing. Wal-Mart, like many other corporations, conducts a very aggressive United Way campaign which meetswith great success among our associates every year. We arent the least bit naive about how big a stick Wal-Mart swings in the world of retailing these days. So before anybody dismisses Bring it Home as a publicity stunt, they should listen to the peoplewhose jobs were saved, or created, by the program. With this approach, we estimate we have saved or created almost 100,000 American manufacturingjobs. That in itself isgiving something back, and it has been a cornerstone philosophy of our company. We have built a company that is so efficient it has enabled us to save ourcustomers billions of dollars, and whether you buy into the argument or not, we believe it. In myopinion, Wal-Mart is an entirely different sort of enterprise from that and I would argue that our relentlesseffort to improve our business has always been tied to trying to make things better for the folks who liveand work in our communities. I think quite a few companies use charitable giving guidelines as a way to say, in effect, We gave at theoffice,when it comes to thinking about what overall good the companies should be accomplishing. Coffee, Lasko,and Huffy.īeyond that, we feel very strongly that Wal-Mart really isnot, andshould not be, in the charity business. Electronics, Kentogs, Capital-Mercury, Mr. Farris was one of our early success stories, and since then weveworked out all kinds of Buy American deals with small and large manufacturers, including FieldcrestCannon, 3M, Sunbeam, Mirro Foley, U.S. Every job we save creates another potential Wal-Mart customer whosnot worrying about where his or her next dollars coming from. Ever圜hristmas, we give our employees Wal-Mart gift certificates.Theres no charity at all involved in this program, and, in fact, Im proud to say that it benefits us atWal-Mart in a very direct way. Most retailers couldnt care less whether the manufacturer makes money or not.Īnyway, today were making about two and a half million Wal-Mart shirts, and weve gone from 90employees the week Mr. Hes theonly guy I ever worked for who looked me right in the eye and said, Son, if you cant make money offthis project, dont do it. It turns out he actually was Sam Walton, and he wanted toknow if we thought we could make 50,000 dozen flannel shirts for him. We were struggling from season to season with ninety jobs, when I got thiscall from a guy claiming to be Sam Walton. We want to find more ways, like Bring it Home, in which we can use our influence togive something back.īefore, we had a contract with Van Heusen for Penneys and Sears, but in 1984 they told us they weremoving everything to China. We still want to drive a hard bargain, but now we need to guard againstabusing our power. So today I think its important for our peopleto remember that things arent the same as the old days, when we were the scrappy underdog having tofight for every single break. We know we can be very influentialpowerful if you prefer.
0 kommentar(er)
