Going Back to Walton’s Ideals
11 September 2005 9.03 pmNews
Wal-Mart is usually a company I frown upon for their marketing tactics, human resource policies, and the way they treat minority workers. Today is not the day to be frowning upon Wal-Mart. Even before Hurricane Katrina made landfall, Wal-Mart was using its warehouses and distrubution centers for emergency kits, food, and water storage. After it hit, they were the second group to respond to the hurricane, second only to the Salvation Army. I find this highly honorable of Wal-Mart. They seem to be trying to rebuild their image, and hopefully this will result in better treatment of their workers, regardless of what ethnicity they are, or where they live. Sam Walton, the original owner of Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club was a Christian, often giving to the poor. His companies were at one point quite moral, and quite ethical. It seems after his death, that they’ve been involved in a lot of law suits about gender discrimination, labor laws, and pay problems.
I hope Wal-Mart continues in this direction to return to the point where they had been at when Sam Walton was still alive. They still have a long path to get there, but in the end, I can see it being worth it. It’s not like the company is going to go under anytime soon. They’ve got a large customer base, and a great deal of profits coming in.
Let me know your feelings about this, as I feel I may only be presenting one side of the issue.
Additional Reading:
http://money.cnn.com/2005/09/09/news/fortune500/walmart_image/index.htm
Very true, I was very proud to read that they were in there so fast, and so strongly pushing towards making this disaster a thing of the past. I really, really hope that they will continue to see Mr. Waltons humanitarian efforts that he possesed during his lifetime and I pray that the CEO’s and corporate heads that are sitting on top of millions of dollars will notice how they can help those that make less than a dollar an hour in their foriegn workshops.
Comment by katie — 11 September 2005 @ 9.50 pm
I think as a self-proclaimed ‘political liberal,’ you tend to see politics in everything. This is not the case. Wal-Mart is simply doing the right thing, not trying to put on a good face for the media. Sometimes things are just what they are, nothing more. I wish America would stop seeing everything politically.
Comment by Todd — 12 September 2005 @ 7.01 am
Todd, CNN itself is proclaiming this to be political. I certainly hope that Wal-Mart isn’t just putting on a good face. It seems lately that I have little to respect Wal-Mart for, perhaps this is a good start to their redemption. Also, how does being a liberal limit me to what I can see things as? Perhaps you should have thought through that statement before you posted it.
Comment by AbandonedHero — 12 September 2005 @ 8.47 am