Corporate Affairs
Walmart is headquartered in the Wal-Mart Home Office complex in Bentonville, Arkansas. The company's business model is based on selling a wide variety of general merchandise at "always low prices." They refer to their employees as "associates". All Wal-Mart stores in the US and Canada also have designated "greeters" at the store entrance, a practice pioneered by founder Sam Walton and later copied by other retailers. Greeters are trained to help shoppers find what they want and answer their questions. For many years, associates were identified in the store by their signature blue vest, but this was discontinued in June 2007 and replaced with more modern and professional khaki pants and polo shirts. The wardrobe change was part of a larger corporate overhaul for the store in an effort to increase sales and rejuvenate its stock price.
Unlike many other retailers, Wal-Mart does not charge a slotting fee to suppliers for their products to appear in the store. Instead, it focuses on selling more popular products and provides incentives for store managers to drop unpopular products, as well as asking manufacturers to supply more popular products.
On September 14, 2006, the company announced that it would phase out its layaway program, citing declining use and increased costs. Layaway ceased to be offered on November 19, 2006, and required merchandise pickup by December 8, 2006. Wal-Mart now focuses on other payment options, such as increased use of six- and twelve-month, zero-interest financing. The layaway location in most stores is now used for Wal-Mart's Site-To-Store program, which was introduced in March 2007. This enables walmart.com customers to buy goods online with a free shipping option, and have goods shipped to the nearest store for pickup.
Maggie Sans, representing Walmart, sat on the Private Enterprise Board as Secretary of the American Legislative Exchange Council. On May 31, 2012, Walmart announced they were suspending their membership in the organization. Sans said:
"Previously, we expressed our concerns about ALEC's decision to weigh in on issues that stray from its core mission 'to advance the Jeffersonian principles of free markets.' We feel that the divide between these activities and our purpose as a business has become too wide. To that end, we are suspending our membership in ALEC."Read more about this topic: Walmart*
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