Wal-Mart to Start First Media Conference
Obvious News - April 5, 2005

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

The company was tight-lipped about the message it wanted to deliver over the course of the two-day event, but scheduled speakers included Chief Executive Lee Scott and Chief Financial Officer Tom Schoewe.

Wal-Mart, whose sales accounted for about 5 percent of all U.S. retail sales in 2004, also planned to give reporters a rare peek at some of its operations in northwest Arkansas.

The event comes in the midst of a move by Wal-Mart, which has been beset by lawsuits and claims of uncompetitive practices, to set the terms of the debate over its image.

Wal-Mart often faces protests from community groups that claim the company drives smaller competitors out of business when entering a new town.

One of the groups that protests the company's practices, Coalition for a Better Inglewood, planned to hold a news conference at the same hotel as Wal-Mart's event and challenge Scott to prove that his company supports communities.

"We believe that the hundreds of millions of dollars Wal-Mart is investing in public relations would be far better spent on addressing the problems Wal-Mart has created for America's communities," Rev. Altagracia Perez, a member of the Inglewood, California-based group, said in a statement.

Wal-Mart's image campaign, launched in January, included a full-page advertisement in more than a hundred newspapers, touting the jobs it plans to create this year, its employee benefit packages, and the diversity of its work force. It also has started a Web site to support its campaign.

But the campaign has been overshadowed by other news about the company. Wal-Mart recently said it would pay a record $11 million to settle a civil investigation by U.S. authorities into allegations it knowingly hired floor-cleaning contractors who employed illegal aliens.

It also ousted former Vice Chairman Thomas Coughlin over a company probe into unauthorized use of corporate gift cards and personal reimbursements that has also been reported to federal prosecutors.

Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart has annual sales of $256 billion, equivalent to the gross domestic product of Austria. In February alone, its total sales were $22.37 billion.