June 27, 2005

Benton, Upscale

Michael Barbaro writes that Benton County is showing its wealth:

Benton County, once a sedate backwater, is quickly morphing into a swanky oasis in the middle of the Ozarks.

The result is an unprecedented migration of high-paid executives to the northwest corner of Arkansas -- professionals from amenity-rich cities like New York, San Francisco, Atlanta and Miami, who bring not only their six-figure salaries, but an appetite for Jaguars, sushi, pet day-care centers, Gucci shoes and Chanel sunglasses.

It's not Wal-Mart executives buying these things, it's the employees of WM's suppliers.
Jeff Collins, an economist the University of Arkansas's Sam Walton School of Business, said the thousands of suppliers who have moved to the region are "trying to recreate the world they knew back home, wherever that was, and they have the money to do it."
Wal-Mart executives should take this as anecdotal evidence that personal contact is influencing decisions in subtle ways -- away from the standards considered by the home office to be optimal or most efficient.

You'll notice, though, that Chinese-owned suppliers are not noted to have any Bentonville presence at all...

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The article does contain some stupidities, however, including:

Wal-Mart's unchallenged dominance in American retailing
Just what would you call Target and every other retailer that make up 70% of household consumables, unchallenging competitors?

Posted by Kevin on June, 27 2005 at 11:35 AM

Comments & Trackbacks
julie pierce wrote:

Assistant Managers at Walmart will soon be a thing of the past.

Category changes and my opinion is they are making ready for big...BIG Changes.

What once was a zone manager is now an area manager or an area supervisor. They are hourly. The life of the average Walmart Department manager is changing.
The new manager schedules look like the assistant manager schedules and are not the typical seven to four with weekends off.

If you can take it, they will give it to you.

New Department Managers are only hopeful that associates working in their areas of responsibility will do a good job in their absence.

Now it is a matter of if you are able to withstand the lies and the death of the culture as an assistant you may make a promotion or you will have no choice but to exit.

The hourly associates will be doing the work that was once given to the assistant managers.

As a department manager the scheule was important.

It was a perk. The great hours were considered a perk. A reason to be a department manager and now it is gone.

I will post a copy of the new area managers schedule as it has been written by the corporate offices.

It is obviously being followed in a number of the newer stores and will more than likely give the new area managers a feeling of accomplishment, a step up or a distinct feeling that the company once again is attempting to do something that is going to cause a controversy throughout the stores.

It is one thing for a region or division to do something new that is this different, but when the Walmart Department Manager down the road has a great schedule and one department to run it makes the other wonder why at the same or less pay they have up to four departments and a rotten schedule to do the same amount of work in each department they are managing.

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The Walmart Way Not Sam's Way...Walmart XIII AD by Julie Pierce

-- July 5, 2005 07:26 PM ∞