A Promise Fulfilled

One thing I can say, when Wal-Mart makes promises, it keeps them.

Some people or companies I've worked with will not always back up what they say, making up reasons for falling short.

Wal-Mart, from my experience both as a customer and as a former equipment provider, holds itself responsible for negotiated deals and expects nothing less than perfection from its suppliers.

In the promise they made that's prompted this blog entry, Wal-Mart stated it would clean up its image, wanting to make its stores more attractive and shopping easier.

Thus, when I visited the new "yellow" Wal-Mart in Chesterfield, Virginia, a few days ago, I felt like I was in shopping heaven. I had the low prices and variety I expect to find at Wal-Mart and more importantly I had the shopping experience of a place like Target, Tesco, Dunnes, Sears/K-Mart or other similar department stores.

In other words, Wal-Mart has found a way to go upscale without scaling up its prices.

I'll be honest. I'm one of those people who watches what he wears when he goes out. I'm no clothes horse but I like to look good. Vanity and chivalry go hand-in-hand - a man wants to impress a woman by his talents as much as his looks. I don't dress up but I wear clothes that comfortably fit and make me feel good. Some days, it might be a camo shirt and work pants while I'm working in the yard and need to run to Wal-Mart for a bag of potting soil. Some days, it might be dress pants, dress shirt and sports coat when I'm shopping with my wife after a dinner and a movie.

I thank you, Wal-Mart, for keeping your promise. If what the smiling young woman said at the Chesterfield store is correct, soon all the Wal-Marts will be changing styles, offering basic goods and sensible designer stuff at prices we can all afford.

Pride is not a primary motivating factor for me. I'm not sure what that word means. But I can say I'm proud to call myself a Wal-Mart shopper because I'm a global thinker and know how world trade works. I wish our government understood the concept of economies of scale the way Wal-Mart does - we'd make money instead of sticking the people with a trillion-dollar tax bill every time Congress gets the whim to overcome inertia and pass a bill worth signing by the president.

Exclusivity is not my style - I don't shop Neiman Marcus or drive down Rodeo Drive in my Lamborghini. Sure, I've owned Italian sports cars but it was a pair of used Alfa Romeo Spiders (one of which I bought from Phil Williams and the other from a guy going blind who owned a Jowett Jupiter), not his-and-her Ferraris. Now I own a 1962 Dodge Lancer and a 1991 Chevy S10. I've owned a couple of rice burners (i.e., Japanese motorbikes). I have both a Murray sit-behind lawnmower and a reel mower, both a rake and an electric leaf blower, both a sledge hammer and a hammer drill. I'm the guy next-door who likes his Yuengling, Sam Adams or home brew.

The real people of Wal-Mart are the managers, associates and regular customers who work and shop at Wal-Mart because we like being people. Being people means being able to take humour and criticism in stride, shedding negativity like water off a duck's back. When you do that you see what it's like to be real, not stuck up or stuck on yourself. Some days and some situations will test your realness. Do you think you can pass the test? Can you find a way to see through a bad day or an overly-critical customer and still see the real people around you, even that customer who's in your face or making a snide comment, separating that person's bad day from the real person inside? Treat everyone the same and find out. You'll make a world of difference. You get tested in many ways - some pass, some fail. I prefer the people who pass the test of seeing everyone in a positive light no matter what or who a person acts like. Sam Walton would expect no less.

That's why you see me at Wal-Mart every few days - there's always some reason I want to go back to see those smiling faces who help me keep change in my pocket that I can drop in the Children's Miracle Network box as I walk out.

No, I'm not getting paid to write this blog entry or am receiving kickbacks in any manner. I just finished shopping at Wal-Mart and felt the desire to write this down, hoping it will encourage Wal-Mart to convert the Big Cove/Hampton Cove store to its new yellow style ASAP. Times are tough in this economy and I know the change costs money but it sure would make shopping locally more enjoyable - it might even boost sales on this side of town where the image-conscious seem to be so sensitive about where they're seen shopping. Help them rediscover what Wal-Mart is really all about: setting trends that make sense, not trends for the sake of being trendy.