A New Weapon for Wal-Mart: A War Room

[Kire]

A New Weapon for Wal-Mart: A War Room

By MICHAEL BARBARO
Published: November 1, 2005

BENTONVILLE, Ark., Oct. 26 - Inside a stuffy, windowless room here, veterans of the 2004 Bush and Kerry presidential campaigns sit, stand and pace around six plastic folding tables. Open containers of pistachio nuts and tropical trail mix compete for space with laptops and BlackBerries. CNN flickers on a television in the corner.

The phone rings, and a 20-something woman answers. "Turn on Fox," she yells, running up to the TV with a notepad. "This could be important."

A scene from a campaign war room? Well, sort of. It is a war room inside the headquarters of Wal-Mart, the giant discount retailer that hopes to sell a new, improved image to reluctant consumers.

Wal-Mart is taking a page from the modern political playbook. Under fire from well-organized opponents who have hammered the retailer with criticisms of its wages, health insurance and treatment of workers, Wal-Mart has quietly recruited former presidential advisers, including Michael K. Deaver, who was Ronald Reagan's image-meister, and Leslie Dach, one of Bill Clinton's media consultants, to set up a rapid-response public relations team in Arkansas.

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/01/business/01walmart.ready.html?ex=1288501200&en=ec9edfc5f2f9841f&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

[firefox]

1. Nations have defense departments. Wal-mart is a corporate nation

So, is this supposed to be a surprise?

I tell you what surpises me. Google list only 765 results for the exact phrase "corporate nation." No wonder we have so many problems. Nobody knows where the head of the nail is, even the ones with hammers looking for a spot to strike.

[flygal]

2. How nice so many dems are joining the Wally team

:sarcasm:

How can they look at a map showing how many store there are and not get ill. Walmart is out to destroy small businesses and make Americans fatter. My mom's neighborhood grocery story went under when wally opened and now you HAVE to drive to get groceries. We used to be able to walk and pick up milk, etc. Now the corner is all gas stations and casinos. Really family friendly stuff there.

[Kire]

3. sorry about your mom

that sucks

[ClintonTyree]

4. Can't they use the White House war room?

lord knows they've paid the Repiglickens more than enough to cover the rental price. Maybe Wal*Mart doesn't want bush's "taint" rubbing off on them? :shrug:

[Robert Oak]

5. What kills me

is corporations have no problems dumping millions into pay off , oops
I mean, lobby money and millions in corporate attorneys and millions in strategy and management and PR to "maintain their image".

Imagine if they just confessed to treating workers like shit and stopped dumping all of that money to the above groups and instead gave it to their workers.

I bet their bottom line would come up as more profitable.

[tomreedtoon]

6. Saw it in action on ABC's "20/20"...

...John Stossel, the apologist for corporate malfeasance, essentially showed a handful of protestors walking in front of a Wal-Mart, then had lots of talking heads defending Wal-Mart. Including video shot in Wal-Mart of Wal-Mart employees supposedly "rescued from poverty."

Wanna bet that no one else will get a word in? Like the people who really protested? (I'll even bet that the protestors were paid by Wal-Mart...or if they were Wal-Mart workers drafted to play protesters, they weren't paid much.)