UPDATE 3/26/05: Thomas Coughlin has been fired.
Reader Reid Davis sends in a scoop:
BENTONVILLE — A number of Wal-Mart executives have been terminated, a company spokesman confirmed Tuesday night. "Several executives in the Wal-Mart Home Office have been terminated from the company in the past several days," said Jay Allen, a company spokesman.They have more names, but without further confirmation, journalistic ethics prevent the paper from releasing them.Three sources told The Daily Record that among those let go was Jim H. Haworth, executive vice president of operations for the Wal-Mart Stores Division.
Allen declined to confirm any names.
Allen also declined to state the reasons the executives were terminated, citing privacy issues. He would not say whether the terminations were because of a recent incident or a long-term investigation. "Our management team, well, you regret losing people, but the team is deep enough the operations will not be impacted (by the recent terminations)," Allen said.
The firings have no connection with Tom Coughlin’s pending retirement, Allen said. Coughlin is vice chairman of the board of directors of Wal-Mart.
He will retire Jan. 24.
UPDATE 12/16/04: Some more information is available from Bloomberg:
``There's an enormous amount of pressure building up at the executive and upper middle management levels to make the company more like a global fortune 50 company,'' said Richard Hastings, chief economist at Bernard Sands LLC, in Charlotte, North Carolina. ``They have been a home-grown, home-spun company. They're trying to make sure they look to the future and that future has to include fewer law suits, less negative press, and the rebound in sales momentum.''And The New York Post names some names:Haworth was among officers who addressed analysts and shareholders at the company's annual meeting in June. He appeared on stage with about a dozen other officers to provide updates on the company's various divisions.
Ken Reese, director of operations for Wal-Mart's Tire & Lube Express; Terry Pharr, a senior vice president; and Chad Madison, who worked for the company's Neighborhood Market stores, were also said to have lost their jobs, according to the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal.
Posted by Kevin on December, 15 2004 at 11:47 AM
| TrackBack
noneofyourbusiness wrote:The juice on the street in Bentonville says this was something dirty...and that it WAS DIRECTLY RELATED to Coughlin's "retirement"...
No confirmation, but lot's of buzz...
-- December 16, 2004 12:00 AM ∞
D wrote:i heard the same....email me
-- December 16, 2004 02:38 PM ∞
sam walton wrote:The word in wal-mart is that the terminations are all related to a christmas party hosted by Tom Coughlin that included all the wal-mart execs named, and also included several executives from vendor companies (coke, tyson and jb hunt have all been mentioned, coke more consistently). This is a violation of wal-mart's policies concerning conflict of interest and personal relationships with vendors. Word is the executive board only gave Tom Coughlin the option to retire and there are rumors that an executive with coca-cola was also terminated by their board.
-- December 16, 2004 09:49 PM ∞
KRISTEN wrote:I'd like to hear anyone's story/rumor or whatever you want to call it. W've heard some pretty wild stories out here in Oklahoma. Hopefully it's not as bad as the "fraudualant spending with company fund on hispanic prostitute" theory. So please e-mail me if any of you hear something else. thanks!
-- December 17, 2004 11:16 AM ∞
Kevin Brancato wrote:Also, you can post the rancid rumors here... This post is being hit 300+ times a day now. I'm sure they all want to know...
-- December 17, 2004 11:18 AM ∞
billy wrote:I heard it had to do with drugs and hookers
-- December 17, 2004 02:16 PM ∞
Scott wrote:I heard it had to do with some exchanges of high dollar cutting horses given to some execs at no costs from vendor execs!
-- December 17, 2004 03:20 PM ∞
Hahaha wrote:I heard the same thing about the Mexican hookers. That they had them flown into that ranch that was specified earlier. I heard that from a regional level person too. I also heard that Coughlin was retiring not by his own choice, but forced. They'd have to hire someone to sleep with them...have you seen some of the people that they are talking about? I dont care how much money they make, you couldnt pay me to screw Coughlin.
-- December 18, 2004 12:11 PM ∞
Bud wrote:Word has it, the story about prostitutes is TRUE.
Associates from the store in South Texas were providing them to the old farts.-- December 19, 2004 08:28 PM ∞
Chuck wrote:I have been told that Mr. Haworth was absolutely cleared of any wrong doing and was asked to return to the Wal-Mart team. He declined. I believe Wal-Mart has lost one of the most well respected executives in business. Wal-Marts loss!
-- December 20, 2004 10:28 AM ∞
jl wrote:Any more on this? It has not hit news stands
-- January 26, 2005 03:31 PM ∞
Ace wrote:Interesting company e-mail today 1730hrs AR time from Lee Scott.
"This is to let you know that following an internal company investigation, former Vice Chairman Tom Coughlin has resigned from the Wal-Mart Board of Directors. The investigation relates to personal reimbursements, payment of third party invoices, and the use of company gift cards. Three Wal-Mart associates have been terminated following the investigation, including one company officer."
"WM has refered the matter to the US Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas"
-- March 26, 2005 12:42 AM ∞
cid wrote:Goes anyone know where in texas Coughlin's ranch was located? ce
-- March 26, 2005 08:40 PM ∞
Susan wrote:It had to do with third party invoices, shopping card redemptions, some credit card fraud. I haven't heard anything about the hookers or anything.
-- March 31, 2005 09:05 AM ∞
Doug wrote:I work for Wal-Mart. Home Office no less.
I'd like to think that I know "a lot". But, who knows. Here goes:
Yes-- it was stuff at a Christmas party.
Yes-- there were strippers.
NO-- there were no drugs.
Yes-- it did inovlve the use of gift cards.
Yes- Coughlin was asked to resign because of this.
Yes-- Haworth, Pharr, Reese were all tied in with this. Pharr has been known for years as a guy who couldn't keep his dick in his pants. I can't believe the company kept him around as long as they did. When he was a RVP (below "Senior Vice President over a geo dividion) he was warned about his actions.--Doug
-- April 10, 2005 10:44 AM ∞
jim wrote:Looks like a couple of hounds need a good home! vendor relations seems to me the next thing on the list and close buddies to mr.coughlin.
stay tuned
-- April 13, 2005 01:14 PM ∞
joyce wrote:I work for the Walmart in Valley Stream New York. They are not allowing overtime. If you have overtime you have to take that time by either coming in late or decreasing your lunch hour by the minutes, yes minutes you have for overtime. They keep track of this every night. I think this is illegal. Because overtime is time and a half not straight time. Several people have gotten fired for 1 min. overtime. ACCORDING TO THEM THIS IS STEALING TIME!!!
-- April 14, 2005 09:04 AM ∞
candy wrote:First of all, Joyce, unless you work _over_ 40 hours for the week, you are not into overtime. The reason you come in late, or take _longer_ lunches is so that you _don't_ go over 40. There is nothing illegal about that. If you work _over_ 40 then you will get paid for it, according to Wal-Mart policy. If you are too dumb to follow a simple rule and don't watch your time, then maybe you should be fired!
-- April 14, 2005 05:07 PM ∞
erin wrote:As far as the "overtime" goes, it's the same at my store. But, to the company overtime is anything over your schedualed hours. If you go ver your schedualed hours, then they are making you take it off. You shouldn't be getting paid time and a half for working over your schedualed hours, unless it's over 40 hours a week. And the same thing is happening here. I think the entire company is on a downward spiral. I have been at my store for 7 1/2 years, and this is the worst I have seen it since i've started. Even our DM is getting antsy about things. I work with a dept. mgr. that has been w/the company for over 20 yrs. He was supposed to recieve a merit raise 2 yrs. ago, but it never went in. When our personel assoc. asked him about the form in his file he went straight to our DM about it. They refused to give him the money he worked hard for, and now the form is "missing" and he can't do anything about it.
-- April 18, 2005 09:19 AM ∞
julie pierce wrote:They do all of it The Walmart Way Not Sam's Way.
It's Walmart XIII AD
-- June 18, 2005 09:58 PM ∞
julie pierce wrote:Okay.
It could be unimportant to the media. Possibly because it has been the bigger part of my life for over seven years Walmart is taking top priority with me.
Seriously, I want so badly to be able to be either anti or pro and at this point I would be better off being totally anti Walmart but…and it is a big but…I cannot do it.Okay.
Walmart doesn’t care. The corporate officers did what they could to detour any attempt I made to find out why they have allowed Sam Walton’s culture to die and refused to adequately answer questions about integrity and ethics.Okay.
They did what they could at the end to make me feel like a criminal and to make it impossible to explain what was happening because they would not communicate when asked for their assistance.Okay.
Possibly they had their reasons for making it seem as if I was doing something terrible when all I was attempting to do was get answers for the associates.Okay.
They said I was wrong…I still think I was right.Okay.
Maybe I should just go completely anti Walmart and try to gain the acceptance of the powers that be on the anti side. It would be a lie to do it either way. Pro or anti there are issues on both sides, some wrong from my point of view after working for the company almost seven years and some right, yeah, I can understand the way they look at things some of the time.Okay.
The media avoids digging deep. Walmart avoids advice that has always been available without charge. Walmart hasn’t the time to look into any of what I know. Walmart has an agenda that requires one to follow blindly and is more than likely not different from most of the retail corporate companies in the United States.Not.
My views are not important to the media or to anyone else. Even though I have not seen anything like it publishers seem to avoid my writings, my information although I can document just about any of my views and concerns.Not.
Any method of communication from Walmart Corporate would have been appreciated before this or now.
An evaluation that I questioned…when seriously the associates could use the open door directly with me but I was halted when I attempted to take the concerns further and was told that I had to make myself approachable. If anything I was more approachable than the average member of management but was not allowed to approach management or corporate with the questions and concerns and was not allowed to ask about the interrogation that was the cause of my termination.Not.
I was not allowed to communicate my opinion or the opinions of others in any way and do not remember ever being told that I had to keep my comments to myself.Not.
Where did they get that I had a lack of “respect for the individual”? Where did they get the impression I was not told I could leave the interrogation they called an interview when I requested to contact the corporate offices or an attorney?Not.
It is not easy to be either pro or anti even now and I can only attribute that to the brainwashing techniques once used or that there is some kind of truth in all of it.
-- June 21, 2005 06:46 PM ∞
Dana wrote:I've know Tom for quite a long time. I can't believe all that WalMart is saying about him. Since Sam has been gone WalMart has went down hill. What is wrong with this company. Just because a man is different then the other executives and is about to retire do you start to spread rumors of stealing or misapropriation of funds. I think it's all a ploy to get rid of him and not have to pay this full retirement package. This is crazy. What has our world come to when companies won't pay people that have worked very hard for them for many years and have missed out on their childrens lives to work and just when they are about to retire they step on them and fire them for some bogus reason just so they wont have to pay retirement. I hate it. If Sam was alive he would kick the executives in the butt and stop all this political scamming that is going on.
-- July 15, 2005 12:22 PM ∞
