The Hindu Business Line : Showbiz all the way at Wal-Mart annual meet

Bentonville (Arkansas) June 3 Was it an annual shareholders meeting or not? Well, kind of, because between rock bands, a stunning gymnastics show, with stars of US superhit shows such as High School Musical and American Idol performing for thousands of shareholders and employees and rounded off with a high decibel performance by Jennifer Lopez, a succession of Wal-Mart top honchos, including the CEO, Mr Lee Scott, came on stage to talk about the numbers of the world's top corporation.

And, the Chairman, Mr Rob Walton, shepherded the company's shareholder proposals, one of the few times the cavernous Bud Walton arena at the University of Arkansas in the adjoining town of Fayetteville did not reverberate to music.

It was a show meant to dazzle and entertain and take some heat off the company which has been facing criticism for slowing growth in the US markets, its healthcare benefits for its employees and is engaged in a high-profile legal battle with its former top marketing communications executive who it fired in December last.

4-hour show

The company's 37th annual general meeting, an event held on June 1 every year, saw thousands of employees, (associates as they are called), stream into the arena from 6 a.m.

The 4-hour extravaganza, which began at 7 a.m. — Wal-Mart time, as that's when the stores open — also had associates from all the 13 countries that Wal-Mart operates in. Given the India interest, there was also a small India contingent of Wal-Mart-ians who cheered raucously when the Vice-Chairman, Mr Mike Duke, called the country names out.

Flag-bearing employees from each country, wearing traditional clothes, wove their way through the arena. There was more, with Chinese dragons on stage, a Brazilian Samba and Spanish dancers from South America.

The show, with a popular US stand-up comedian, Sinbad, as the master of ceremonies — he had the house down with his digs at the Wal-Mart culture — had its sober moments with a film on Helen Walton, founder Mr Sam Walton's wife, screened. She passed away in April this year.

A succession of Wal-Mart employees were rewarded for their heroism, the most gripping of which was the story of a boy from Sudan, James Garang, whose parents were killed in gunfire and who was shot himself and taken for dead, but who survived and now works in a Wal-Mart in the US.

Business end

Mr Tom Schoewe, Wal-Mart's CFO, who himself arrived on stage as part of a gymnastics show with a breathless backdrop of rainfall projected on the enormous on-stage screen, gave the business end of the meet some momentum when he announced that the retailer will cut down on growth of its enormous SuperCenters which have been the engine of its growth so far.

The $345-billion retailer originally planned to open 270 stores this year, but Mr Schoewe announced that it will reduce that to 190 to 200 stores in fiscal 2008, and then to 170 stores a year for the next three years starting fiscal 2009.

US store sales fell 3.5 per cent in April, the largest drop since 1979. Mr Scott, who promised he was the last speaker on stage, made an aggressive speech where he said that Wal-Mart's plan will improve growth.

To a huge and sustained roar from the audience, he said the retailer was back as numero uno on the Fortune list. He ended by emphasizing Wal-Mart's credo: saving people money so that they can live better.

After that, it was back to showtime, with J Lo electrifying the stage.