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WalMart Stores Inc is hoping for a groundswell “made-in-America” movement.
The world’s largest retailer hosted its first two-day summit yesterday bringing together retailers, suppliers and Government officials that it hopes will build on its recent commitment to drive more manufacturing in the US.
The event, which attracted representatives from 500 manufacturers, eight governors, US Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and officials from three dozen states, is occurring seven months after the Bentonville, Arkansas-based discounter pledged that it planned to buy $ 50 billion more US made goods over the next decade. That’s the equivalent of just more than 10 per cent of what WalMart will sell at retail this year.
But WalMart has said that if other merchants do the same, that would mean an additional $ 500 billion in American-made goods over the next decade.
The lineup for today was impressive, and the campaign could serve to boost WalMart’s image, constantly under attack by labor-backed groups who have criticised the retail behemoth as a destroyer of US jobs, not a creator.
WalMart’s CEO Mike Duke, Bill Simon, the company’s US division CEO and other executives, joined other business leaders including Jeff Immelt, Chairman and CEO of General Electric Corp, and Kevin Toomey, President and CEO of the Kayser-Roth Corp.
The goal of the summit is to start “connecting the dots” with a dialogue among manufacturers, retailers and state officials about where opportunities are to bring more manufacturing to the United States, Simon said.
“It could be difficult for one at a time, all of us on our own,” Simon said. “The best way to overcome the challenges is to talk to one another.”
Rising wages have erased some of the competitive advantages China had in manufacturing, Simon said.
Some experts are pointing out that WalMart led the migration of manufacturing jobs overseas in search of the cheapest labor, veering away from the principles of its late founder Sam Walton, who espoused buying American-made goods.
“It’s a very positive PR move for the company,” said Burt Flickinger III, President of retail consultancy Strategic Resource Group. “But it took two decades to unwind the American manufacturing base and it will take two decades to bring it back.” He says what will be brought back will only be a fraction of business sent overseas.
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