Politics from the Palouse to Puget Sound

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Lee's Garage Live

The reporters had a chance to ask Lee Scott some questions after his speech. Some of the more interesting responses were:

  • Wal-Mart has no official stance on illegal immigration. SCott thinks some bills are better than radiucal bills pushed by both parties.

  • Scott sees no threat to Wal-Mart from online merchants. How do you economically get things like toilet paper, etc. shipped through the mail?

  • In response to a question of "Is Wal-Mart too big?" Scott asked "What does the customer think?" If Wal-Mart is so powerful, why does it only make 3% profit? Scott said Wal-Mart needs to get out in front of issues like this and tell its story better or it will spend 10 years trying to catch up.

  • Scott doesn't know how much turnover is good or bad in a retail environment. But Wal-Mart jobs are often about learning how to work.

  • Wal-Mart has no official position on increasing the minimum wage. Scott said nobody at Wal-Mart makes the minimum wage. He thinks there would probably be an upside for Wal-Mart if the minimum wage were increased. He personally thinks its time the issue gets looked at.

  • The issue of the Maryland health care legislation came up. He said Wal-Mart has no plans to stop development in the state. He summed his personal feelings up with the word "ridiculous." Many Maryland customers had written in to apologize and say they were moving to West Virginia. He said the law was not good government and reflected only short term issues and was designed as a punishment against Wal-Mart.

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