Posted on 01/12/2004 6:49:59 AM PST by ninenot
New York - Wal-Mart does not have a grand plan to take over the world, Chief Executive Officer H. Lee Scott told his retail competitors Sunday at the start of the National Retail Federation's 94th annual convention.
"We just want to keep growing," Scott said in a talk that acknowledged his company's power, but tempered the message with big doses of self-effacing humor. "We don't think we're going to own the world. If you don't believe it, just go to a Best Buy store in the United States on the Friday after Thanksgiving."
It was the first visit by a chief executive of the world's largest retailer to the annual gathering of the world's largest retail trade group.
Scott said there was no special significance to his decision to participate in the convention at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. But he used the occasion to urge fellow retailers to stick together to solve a number of issues facing the industry.
"This is a great industry," Scott said. "One of the problems is that we don't come together to have a voice on the issues that affect us. We need to find what are the similarities between Neiman Marcus and Tractor Supply."
Scott mentioned rising health care costs, frivolous lawsuits and stringent environmental regulations as areas of concern to retailers.
"Not to sound too defensive, but we do have it," Scott said of health insurance for Wal-Mart employees.
"We believe it's time for the government to step in and get a handle on it."
On the subject of tort reform, Scott said Wal-Mart has an obligation to compensate people for legitimate injuries, but it shouldn't be liable for damages for people like the woman who made a recent claim that turned out to be one in a string of 15 lawsuits she had filed against Wal-Mart and other chains.
"I start my day by reading sales, followed by a visit from our general counsel," Scott said.
Scott targeted strict environmental rules as a factor in job losses in the U.S.
"It's so easy to say that jobs are going to China because of low labor costs," he said. But in some cases, factories that are for sale in the U.S. come with so many site cleanup requirements that it's cheaper to build in Mexico.
Wal-Mart has become the "poster child" for global trade issues, Scott said. "But from going around to stores, it occurred to me that we are not the only ones who import from China," he said.
"Wal-Mart believes we should pay more, when we can, to buy product made in the U.S.," he said. But even when it does, some plants still fail, as textile company Pillowtex did last year, he said.
Scott said it is easy for people writing about global trade to blame Wal-Mart without doing sufficient research. "The truth is, the world is changing, and it's going to change in a way that's uncomfortable for us."
Looking ahead at retail trends, Scott said he expects continued consolidation of retail chains and suppliers to retailers.
Consumer spending in 2004 will be "modestly" better than last year as people benefit from tax cuts and increasing employment, helping boost sales, Scott said.
"The first half of the year should be positive in general," because of tax refunds, Scott said. "The fact that jobs are growing and not being eliminated is very important to all of us."
Wal-Mart has struggled to maintain its pace of growth as shoppers controlled spending amid concerns about unemployment. The discount retailer has said that fourth-quarter profit will be near the low end of its forecast of 63 cents to 65 cents a share because of mediocre holiday sales.
Scott also said radio frequency identification technology, known as RFID, will be a big benefit to the industry and, ultimately, to the consumer in the form of lower prices. RFID technology is already used in EZ payment cards for freeway tolls and is about to be adopted by the retail industry to tag and identify merchandise.
The RFID tags, when placed on individual products, will enable each item to be tracked through the manufacturing, delivery and sale process.
Wal-Mart is taking a leading role in adopting the technology and has asked its top 100 suppliers to install the tags on items by2005. Wal-Mart doesn't plan to stop using suppliers who can't meet the deadline, Scott said.
Scott drew applause from retailers in the audience when he defended Wal-Mart's refusal to sell magazines and music the company finds offensive.
"I don't think of it as censorship as long as you can go buy it somewhere else," Scott said.
Bloomberg News contributed to this report.
| Rank | Location | Receipts | Donors/Avg | Freepers/Avg | Monthlies | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 61 | Turkey | 10.00 |
1 |
10.00 |
10 |
1.00 |
|
|
Thanks for donating to Free Republic!
Move your locale up the leaderboard!
Move their costs to taxpayers while eliminating US suppliers and the taxpayers who WORK at US suppliers.
Alice-in-Wonderland here.
Uhhh... in case you hadn't noticed, health care was taken over by the government a long, long time ago.
The ideal situation would be to decouple medical insurance from employment. Anybody who wants medical insurance would have to buy it, just like they buy insurance for their house or their car.
But that will never happen, because the government would never give up the control over citizens that control of the health care system provides.
So it's a done deal already.
Herein lies the key to eleminating any government program. It must be done in a manner that preserves and expands the power and control that the government derives from that program.
why? they just want someone else to pay for it. As long as it's not them it's just fine.
It's even worse than that. The cost of re-tooling and upgrading an existing plant in the U.S. is often so high that it is cheaper to build one from scratch overseas. I suspect this is what is behind most auto plant closings in the U.S. over the last couple of decades -- as a plant reaches the end of its useful life (40-50 years), the parent company does a detailed analysis of rehabilitation costs and decides it simply isn't worthwhile to keep it open.
It's an increasing trend. I don't think it will be as pervasive as education as a citizen requirement. Rather I think the Social Security original model where the government would provide a base [maybe just catastrophic, major medical] and people were expected to supplement privately for coughs and aches.
Citizen health is becomming a government function like military, education, police and fire protection.
Uhhh... in case you hadn't noticed, health care was taken over by the government a long, long time ago.Damn straight. Few people realize that we already have socialized medical insurance... just not run by the government. It is, however, mandated by the government, as anyone self-employed will know -- you can write-off health insurance costs for employees, but not for the self-employed. That's called government control. (Payroll taxes operate the same.) No surprise that Walmart wants the government to pick up the rest of the tab.
Back in the early 1900s the biggest supporters of railroad and "pure food" reform were business. While philosophically disinclined to regulation, big-business realized mighty fast that control of business by government meant control of government by business. The railroads and the meat packers quit screaming as government regulation killed off competition.
I'll think you'll find that many CEOs of large corporations support the concept of universal coverage paid for by Uncle Sam.
It's a terrible idea, but then again so is employer-provided coverage.
DU thinks Starbucks is trying to take over the world.
Why? Why is it so much worse than an employer-provided income, or employer-provided 401K plan, or employer-provided pension? Those were traditional ways employers tried to entice and retain the best employees. They would try to develop a stable work force by offering benefits.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.