I expect that our associates will walk with a little more bounce in their step and understand that this company is behind them and has respect for them.

Lee Scott

Categorized in : Understand Step Walk Respect

We want to set a tone going into our fiscal year that starts Feb. 1, that Wal-Mart Stores is going to be aggressive in taking care of customers, taking care of our associates, communications and merchandising.

year aggressive care want

People aren't going to talk about it except me and that is communication and the visits I have personally had in our meetings with our store managers saying if you do these things you will be terminated, period.

me you communication people

I would guess that any criticism about Wal-Mart could have some element of truth with 1,500,000 people.

some criticism truth people

I just think that it's maybe fashionable today to try to take individual actions and individual failures and take the broadest possible brush and try to paint a company.

try think company today

Where we have been incorrect in what we have done, then I think we have an obligation to settle.

settle i-think think done

Where we're not wrong or where the cost of settling is so much that it is totally disproportionate to the harm or the error that we made, we're not going to settle.

settle going wrong where

I think in some ways we have allowed other people to set the agenda. Other people to define who we are.

some who think people

You know, we opened a record number of stores last year.

last year know you

Retailing, it's always true that there is some items that I wish we had a lot more of like the iPod and there is some items I wish we had a lot less of.

i-wish true always wish

More and more, more and more digital, in particular, I think you'll see in our stores next year, as we start combining these digital products and they interface with each other, you'll see that represented in Wal-Mart.

start think you digital

It's hard for us in our stores to be a leader in technology.

us hard technology leader

Our customer base is not necessarily a leader, an early adopter.

customer our early leader

And the greeter is what sets the tone for this company and I've been on TV a little bit this morning.

little been company morning

And what I am trying to say to them that through our ads and through our discussions is if you don't want us in your community, that's your choice, but don't say it's because of wages.

i-am choice you community

Because the truth is our wages are really competitive and they're good.

because good truth-is truth

Don't say it's because of benefits, because our benefits are good.

our say because good

So I think we have an obligation with our size to make sure that we are open to what people have to say to us because the people who criticize us, they're not all mean-spirited.

say think size people

Many of them are doing it because they are concerned about smart growth.

about doing smart growth

There are going to be some people who never want Wal-Mart. That's OK.

some-people never want people

We've got to figure out a way to cause communities to also want them, the political, organized bodies.

out political want way