Wal-Mart, We Love You, Really We Do!

Modern Americans are born either to love or to hate Wal-Mart. There are very few folks that are in-betweens, except for me. I would like to have it known, before Mickey Gilmore the Manager comes looking for me with one of his on-sale, no- coupon- needed, case- thrown- in hunting rifles, that I am truly ambivalent.

I do not shop at Wal-Mart.

I do buy there.

I do not shop anywhere. I do not even shop for groceries. I cannot blame that on my daughter, Ashlee the Nutritionist, although she did guide me, and showed me how to read labels and figure calories and sodium content. I read the labels but that doesn’t mean that I pay much attention to them. Ashlee inherited from her mother the ability to tell when I am lying, so I read the packages and tell her the truth, as far as it goes. I do prepare a shopping list for groceries, and I stick very close to it.

But back to Wal-Mart.

Last week I bought a nicely done, made-in-Canada picture of the famous “Sailor Kissing the Nurse in Times Square” photograph on the occasion of the ending of World War II. The act portrayed is not an unusual one. Sailors have been kissing nurses for decades. In fact I kissed nurses myself until the medical profession began letting male nurses in. Even a sailor has to draw the line somewhere.

And of course I went to Wal-Mart for the photograph. Only Wal-Mart had it. It was hanging next to one of Marilyn Monroe. This was the famous picture of her leaning forward, luscious lips parted, eyes with the famous “come-play-with-me” look. But I was there to perform my patriotic duty, so I ended up with the Times Square photo. I delivered it to my friend Grady, who is a World War II veteran, fought in Europe and was waiting to be shipped out to the Pacific when the conflict ended, in Chattahoochee today. I will sleep the sleep of righteousness tonight.

And this set me to thinking about Wal-Mart, and what makes it different. Sam Walton began in Bentonville, Arkansas. Before that he had owned several stores that were franchised as Ben Franklins. These were slightly different from the usual town square five-and-dimes. Walton continued with the lower cost merchandise, but pursued sales by offering low prices and a wide variety of goods. Soon he hit on the formula that began the rise in sales and number of stores. We all know what happened. I understand that ninety percent of Americans are within a fifteen minute drive of either a Wal-Mart or a Sam’s Club. I am one of the ten percent. I live twenty minutes away, unless it is one of the days when I have breakfast at the Gazebo with a Lovely Lady. On that day I am two hours and twenty minutes away from Mickey the Manager’s marked-down items.

Today Sam Walton’s empire sells more goods than Target, Home Depot, Kroger, K-Mart and several other “Big Box” stores, all added together. Many of the stores sell groceries, and Wal-Mart outsells two of the biggest grocery chains each year.

Sam Walton served his country in World War II in the U. S. Army’s Intelligence Service. His father was a farmer who moved frequently. Young Sam became the youngest Eagle Scout in Missouri history. He excelled in sports in high school and milked cows at home. His upbringing and his desire to help folks carried over to his stores, where charity events are commonplace, not the exception.

Walton gave a couple of reasons for his success:



“We’re all working together. That’s the secret”.

“Each store should reflect the values of its customers and support the vision they hold for their community”.

And this brings me to my point.

Many Americans, myself included, have been in retail businesses. We have run clothing emporiums and automobile dealerships and grocery stores. We have begun small and many of us stayed small. We fit the norm of selling to customers in our area but most of us did not think about reaching out. We did not consider that we should open multiple outlets or expand to other areas or stay open longer hours so that our customers could shop easily or add more lines. It did not occur to us that we could do these things.

But Sam Walton decided to do them; he served his customers and got big, and bigger, and finally became the biggest. He became one of the richest men in America, and when he died in 1992 his children were listed among the top twenty richest folks in America. Not a bad record for a farm boy who came out of the depths of the Great Depression, is it?

And now, I have to end this column. I have some buying to do. I wonder if Mickey Gilmore still has a copy of that picture of Marilyn Monroe…………