Learning from Wal-Mart

TownHall ^ | 02.24.06 | Edwin J. Feulner

[Coleus]

Anyone who's ever filed a tax return or visited the Department of Motor Vehicles understands that government does two things well: spend our money and waste our time. Unfortunately, both traits were on display during the response to Hurricane Katrina. A House select committee headed by Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., says the government displayed "fecklessness, flailing and organizational paralysis." The committee report lays out 90 flaws in the Katrina response and notes that all levels of government failed. Oh, plenty of money was going out. Last September, the federal government was spending about $1 billion per day -- and it generated plenty of waste. The Federal Emergency Management Agency handed thousands of checks (for $2,000 each) to charlatans.

FEMA also wasted money on housing. It spent $236 million to rent three cruise ships for evacuees. The ships were never more than half full. And don't forget the manufactured homes, some 10,777 of which are rotting away in Arkansas because FEMA ordered more than it needed. As Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, explained, the waste happened because the government took a "pay first, ask questions later" approach. The federal government has promised to fix its problems. Michael Chertoff, secretary of Homeland Security, says he'll deliver "a fully integrated and unified" department before the next hurricane season. Fine. But let's remember, not all answers can be found in Washington.

It would be better to look toward an institution that didn't fail during Katrina: Wal-Mart.

The world's largest retailer had 171 facilities in the path of the storm. But as Jason Jackson, the company's director of business continuity, told a Senate committee, "We were able to recover and reopen 83 percent of our facilities in the Gulf area within six days." One key reason for Wal-Mart's success, Jackson said, is "associates who are dedicated to their communities." That local connection helped it deliver goods when government failed. As Investor's Business Daily reported in September, "While local and federal groups suffered communications problems and bickered over who was in charge, Wal-Mart sprang into action."

And while Chertoff admits Katrina caught the government flat-footed, Wal-Mart is always ready. In his book "The World is Flat," New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote, "The minute Wal-Mart's meteorologists tell headquarters a hurricane is bearing down on Florida, its supply chain automatically adjusts to a hurricane mix in the Florida stores." That means plenty of non-perishable food and critical items such as generators appear in stores even before disaster strikes.

Wal-Mart has plenty to teach the government. "When FEMA or another agency places a blanket order of 100 trailers of water, we often question if the person placing the order really knows what 100 trailers of merchandise looks like," Jackson testified. "Usually the answer to this is that the person making the order was given a dollar amount to spend, and they do not comprehend the size of this order or what it means."

Wal-Mart does what government intervention can't: It drives down prices and makes life better -- in New Orleans and, soon, in Chicago. The company opened a store last month in Evergreen Park (where I was born), after the city council refused to allow it inside the city limits. Some 25,000 people applied for the store's 325 jobs, which suggests Wal-Mart is popular with employees as well as consumers. After Katrina, even Wal-Mart's critics sang its praises. "It's hard to imagine any government program matching the efficiency of a Wal-Mart," wrote consulting firm Lynch Ryan on its Weblog, adding, "Government has a lot to learn from Wal-Mart." Unless we change our approach -- bringing in more private, local expertise and less federal bureaucracy -- we'll be reminded of that the next time disaster strikes.

Dr. Edwin Feulner is president of The Heritage Foundation, a Townhall.com Gold Partner.

[Gabz]

You felt "compelled" to say something that had absolutely nothing to do with the topic of the article and chose to hijack the thread from the get go?

[Gabz]

So you disagree with the article.......why?

Are you claiming the government(at any level) was more efficient than private businesses in it's response to the distasters of the hurricanes?

To me, that is the crux of the article - the government was not efficient in response and segments of the private sector were.

[Walkin Man]

The local Great Wall-mart here is dirty, the parking lot is full of trash and the staff resembles the UN general assembly.

Lots of them speak broken English and half of them wear the Muslim slave / head cover.

Not to mention they sell poorly made commie slave labor garbage. The quickest way to insult your GF or better half is to buy her some cheap junk from Wally World.

I go to Target now, at least their employees speak English.

[mojojockey]

That's the beauty of Capitalism when a company fails us, we can choose to go elsewhere.

[AlexW]

""Made in America" (1986 I think). "

You Walmart bas-hers become real bores. I noticed that you and others are new to FR, so one has to question your motives.

As for Made in America, you could find clothing made in America back in 1986. You are a Levi guy, so tell me where there is a Levi factory in the US now, or any other mass clothing factory for that matter.

Before heading of to Europe in Jan. 05, I bought my winter shoes and winter coat at Walmart. They were not made in US, nor were they made in China. I paid less then $60 for both shoes and coat.
The quality, durability, and comfort has been great.
During the winter months, they have been worn every day.

Long live WALMART.

[garandgal]

Just jumping in to offer support for your position. I was in high-level sales management for a U.S. manufacturer that made the ultimately fatal decision to sell to "big box" stores.

We did not deal with Wal-Mart...different segment (not too hard to guess).

Here's the game:

They seduce you to sell your name-brand product in their stores. Hard to resist...great sales increase.

Then, they start to pressure you to pay for all of their marketing, as well as all in-store displays; promising you an ever increasing profit.

Once they know (and they do) that they are 50% of your business, the hammer drops.

They have forced thousands of companies to go offshore or go out of business with this "tried and true" method.

You can also expect to take a 10% hit on invoices that they just simply decide not to pay...for one reason or another. When you protest they say: "what are you going to do about it?"

The President of my (former) company once came back from a meeting completely shaken because she had a room full of executives demanding lower prices by actually screaming and swearing at her for over an hour. Nice.

Note to lurkers: if you own a business, and are in any way tempted to deal with these people...run away screaming. I'm not kidding.

[AlexW]

"Do you not remember the "Made in America" theme? Yes, 1986 or 1985"

Yes, I remember it very well, and if you read my post, I
stated that in the mid 80s you could still find clothing that was made in America.
Walmart did its best to buy American at that time.

"Well, Guademala(sic) and Canada are two that another posted have already listed."

Gee, when did Guatamala and Canada become part of the US?
I said that there are no longer any plants in the US.

[palmer]

Maybe he meant "Americas", not America. I should have been a little clearer with my point about Levis. I don't know where all their plants are, but my non-WalMart Levis were made in Canada and the WalMart "Signature" Levis were made in Guatemala. The problem I see is that while we have some healthy competition with Canada, it appears that Levis chose some cheaper Guatemalan labor for their WalMart jeans. I would argue that they were forced to make that choice or else give up the WalMart market. Others here would argue that WalMart did them a favor by forcing them to become competitive. I think the end results are pretty clear though, a race to the bottom in terms of labor input, and an inevitable decrease in US labor. Even Canadian labor is preferable to me (I like to buy certain shoes and boots made in Canada) because Canadians are fairer competition against our workers.

But even that goes against my other point which is we should expect to have to give up our ports or other assets if we want cheap merchandise and run negative trade balances to get it.

[AlexW]

No, I do not understand your point.

You cam on here, complaining about Walmart and how it sucks.

Then you went off on this thing about there "Made in USA"
theme. That was 20 years ago! That is no longer their claim.
Walmart can no longer buy clothing in America, so what would you have them do? Bye the way, the last Levi factories
in North America, including Canada, were closed by 2003.

The same bunch that is always bashing Walmart has some other agenda. They may be rich snobs, Union people, or leftist.
They pull up the same old myths about Walmart...Dirty, cheap Chinese junk, bad service, blah blah blah.

Many on here, including myself, find Walmart to be a great store to shop in.

I understand the problems that vendors have with them, but no one forces them to sell to Walmart, anymore then forcing you to shop there.

[driftdiver]

"Very pleasantly surprised after all the complaining I've heard from people repeating the union talking points."

Dislike for Walmart and unions are not joined at the hip. The big box stores have destroyed many small businesses. Unions only seem to destroy the big businesses like GM, Ford, and public education.

[CajunConservative]

They were the most visible because face it they had more resources to get the job done and their goals are provide what the consumers want/need at the least cost to them. They have a bottom line to meet unlike Uncle Sam. That is the point of the story. Around here the store that opened first and longest was Kroger's but their products were more limited than Walmart.

I am not a major huge fan of Walmart for a lot of reasons but they did a great job in getting very necessary items to the one's who needed them most starting as soon as the winds died down enough to get through.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

"In his book 'The World is Flat,' New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote, 'The minute Wal-Mart's meteorologists tell headquarters a hurricane is bearing down on Florida, its supply chain automatically adjusts to a hurricane mix in the Florida stores.' That means plenty of non-perishable food and critical items such as generators appear in stores even before disaster strikes."

Wow. A lefty like Friedman complimenting Wal-Mart, the most hated company by the left voting base, right after Haliburton? Worlds collide, LOL!

[bert]

Drivel.....