Expect a plethora of articles this week as the company has a meeting with journalists to help boost its image:
As part of a national image-polishing campaign, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will play host to nearly 100 journalists this week for meetings with top executives and tours of its Bentonville, Ark., home office.The two-day conference is intended to help "set the record straight" on issues such as employee benefits and global factory standards, said Wal-Mart spokesman Gus Whitcomb. After struggling with bad press for several years, the world's largest retailer also hopes to create something less tangible — a bond with reporters.
"We want people to have the opportunity to meet [Chief Executive] Lee Scott, to learn that we're human beings and to see firsthand what is the Wal-Mart story," Whitcomb said. (The Times was invited and is participating.)
Posted by Bob on April, 4 2005 at 05:49 AM
Kevin Brancato wrote:Alas, I was not invited! :)
-- April 4, 2005 10:20 AM ∞
Bob wrote:Where's our private jet? Appearantly, the company has yet to recognize the importance of blogs.
-- April 4, 2005 04:28 PM ∞
Cathy wrote:The Coalition for a Better Inglewood didn’t have an invitation either but they still took a delegation of African-American and Latino community leaders from Inglewood to Wal-Mart’s PR conference to challenge them to negotiate the company's first ever community benefits agreement. Inglewood California is where voters last year overwhelmingly rejected a Wal-Mart sponsored ballot initiative that would have allowed them to build one of their Supercenters without public input or government oversight. The defeat was a major setback for their California expansion strategy. But Wal-Mart still owns the land and the fight in Inglewood is not over yet.
-- April 7, 2005 12:48 AM ∞
