Our latest press release:
Today, Wal-Mart held its annual shareholders meeting. In response, WakeUpWalMart.com issued the following statement attributable to Paul Blank, campaign director for WakeUpWalMart.com:“Wal-Mart and Lee Scott are living in a dangerous state of denial. The past year has been a total disaster for Wal-Mart. Not only did the company have its worst annual same store sales growth in 27 years, but Wal-Mart failed to execute almost all of its stated objectives for the year, including being denied a bank in the face of unprecedented opposition, a fashion disaster, and an inability to expand into new markets and new demographics.
Most importantly, it is outrageous that Lee Scott would get up on stage and talk about what Wal-Mart is doing on health care when more than half of Wal-Mart’s employees, over 735,000 employees, have no company health care. Lee Scott needs to face the brutal reality that Wal-Mart creates for its workers, their families, and the country. Wal-Mart leaves 53 percent of its workers without company health care, it pays poverty-level wages leaving hundreds of thousands ofWal-Mart workers and their families in the face of financial disaster, faces over 76 wage and hour lawsuits, and has chosen to turn its back on Sam Walton’s commitment to ‘Buy American' when, today, Wal-Mart buys from anywhere but America and is now China’s #1 trading partner.
As Wal-Mart’s own advertising firm (GSD&M) argued, the #1 business problem facing Wal-Mart today is reputation. And, Wal-Mart’s reputation is at an all-time low. What Wal-Mart has failed to understand is that ‘values matter’ to consumers, not just value. The American people are increasingly turning their back on Wal-Mart because the company doesn't reflect America’s values or their own.
Despite Lee Scott’s claim that our campaign “is not working and is not going to work,” the facts, whether Wal-Mart wants to believe them or not, are as plain as can be.
* According to Wal-Mart’s own survey, 14% percent of Wal-Mart’s shoppers are now “Conscientious Objectors” (Wal-Mart Segmentation Study)* 67% cite Wal-Mart as the discount store they shop at most often - a decline over the past two years when the score hovered in the mid-seventies range (GSD&M, Fall 2006)
* A majority of liberal Democrats have an unfavorable opinion of Wal-Mart (Pew Research)
* A majority of American believe Wal-Mart should face government regulation for its failure to provide affordable health care and pension security to its employees. (Wall St. Journal/NBC poll, 2006)
* The country is divided on whether or not Wal-Mart is good or bad for America. According to a L.A. Times/Bloomberg poll 38% of Americans said Wal-Mart is good, while 31% of Americans said Wal-Mart is bad. (LA Times/Bloomberg 9/2006)
* Overall, Wal-Mart’s public image ranks near the bottom, with Exxon and Halliburton, among major corporations surveyed (Pew Research)
* Traffic Declines at Wal-Mart stores (WMT Sales & Earnings Releases)
* Slowest annual same store sales growth in 27 years
* Largest monthly same store sales decline in 28 years
Finally, let us send one message to Wal-Mart and its CEO Lee Scott. We have repeatedly offered to sit down and make Wal-Mart a better company. We have offered to help find reasonable solutions to Wal-Mart's business policies that will improve the lives of the company's 1.39 million associates, as well as the nation. Unfortunately, Wal-Mart has chosen to ignore these offers and as a result the company, its shareholders, its Associates, and the country have suffered.
In the end, Wal-Mart must face the reality that our passion, our conviction, our mission to change Wal-Mart and change America will never end - never - until this company changes for the better. So as we move forward with our new strategy to target Wal-mart’s core customers, as well as expand our outreach to the rest of the American public, we will build this movement even bigger and we know, in our hearts, that we will change Wal-Mart.”
Posted by Sascha - June 1, 2007 05:20 PM - In The News