Let's get this out of the way from the beginning: Wal-Mart tends to be an easy target because, well, it's Wal-Mart.
That's how it goes when you're nearing a half-trillion dollars in annual revenue. Nearly every move the world's largest retailer makes is going to generate some level of skepticism and criticism.
Damned if you do, damned if you don't and all that.
We were reminded of this by the outcry generated over Wal-Mart instituting a dress code for its 1.3 million employees in the United States. Associates, as Wal-Mart calls its workers, are now required to wear black or khaki pants, a blue or white collared-shirt and lightweight blue vests.
Wal-Mart is providing the vests. Employees have to come up with their own shirt and pants.
You'll find no criticism here over Wal-Mart implementing a dress code. It is hard to fathom how difficult it must be to support yourself or a family working a job that pays minimum wage or just slightly above, but from this seat it seems reasonable to expect that as long as the job being performed isn't clothing-optional, then the clothing worn ought to look professional.
Still, Wal-Mart has endured criticism because of the hardship the dress code has created for some workers. As one newspaper colleague pointed out, even if the retailer had offered employees some sort of stipend, let's say $30 each at a total cost to the company of more than $30 million, there would have been complaints.
Why $30? Why not $50? Why not roll those tens of millions back into employee salaries and benefits?
It's a no-win, really.
Where Wal-Mart does deserve at least a raised eyebrow if not outright scorn is in its handling of the vests.
Company executives instituted the dress code knowing Wal-Mart had not secured an American manufacturer to produce them. As first reported by the website Gawker, which was tipped off by a photo submitted by a Wal-Mart employee, the vests are being made in Jordan.
For a company that has worked so hard at pushing its Made In American campaign, this is an inexcusable misstep. Wal-Mart, as detailed -- and praised -- in this space, wants to lead an on-shoring of U.S. manufacturing. Through 2023 the retailer has vowed to purchase an additional $250 billion in American-made goods.
Fayetteville's Jarratt Industries was informed Wal-Mart would purchase 1 million of its taco plates, a single order that more than doubled what the company has sold since 2008. Hoffinger Industries, which produces Doughboy pools and employs nearly 140 at its plant in Helena-West Helena, has been identified as a new supplier for Wal-Mart.
Success stories and possibilities abound in Arkansas and in towns across the United States. These have generated local, statewide and national headlines for Wal-Mart. For a company that is routinely criticized, this Made in America program has helped generate good-will capital with the media and consumers.
Assuming manufacturers can navigate all the challenges associated with moving business back from overseas (see Redman & Associates in Rogers for a look at how difficult it can be) and assuming new suppliers can figure out how to ramp up production to the scale that Wal-Mart demands, this program, at its best, could be transformational for businesses and communities.
Wal-Mart wants to be a leader in the renaissance of American manufacturing.
Because of that, purchasing the vests from overseas was a missed opportunity to affirm its position of leadership to the country and, most importantly, its employees.
Michelle Gloeckler, Wal-Mart's executive vice president of the consumables division and the laed on U.S. manufacturing, said the company will have the vests made in America going forward and would have had the vests produced in the U.S. but deadlines prevented it from locating a supplier in time. There was just no way to get all 1.3 million workers outfitted in American-made gear by Sept. 29.
Either the dress code implementation should have been delayed until the garments could be locally produced, or Wal-Mart should have ponied up and spent the money it took to have them produced within the U.S. For a company that proudly proclaims it generates nearly a half-trillion in revenue, what difference would it have made?
Yes, Wal-Mart is an easy target because of its size. The company knows it. We know it.
Why provide additional fodder when it could have been so easily avoided?
SundayMonday Business on 09/21/2014