Walmart’s ‘Grandstand Move’: Let’s Do The Math

Posted on Jan 23, 2013 in Business Ethics, Corporate Communications

By W.T. “Bill” McKibben, Senior Counsel, The Great Lakes Group

Those of us who have spent time in communications, be it journalism or public relations, are familiar with what we call a “grandstand move.” That’s when a company with a bad image will roll out some event or policy designed to make them look good. With luck, they garner a ton of positive media attention. So it is with Walmart. Their latest is a pledge of a job for every returning veteran during their first year out of the service. It got Walmart more positive media than they’ve seen in years. Even we were impressed, until we got to thinking about it.

The majority of jobs at Walmart are low-wage, part-time with zilch benefits. When you’ve served in the workplace culture prevalent in our military, who wants that kind of job?  Bill Simon, who runs the Walmart stores in the United States, joined the company less than ten years ago. He was paid about $8.5 million last year. Our guess is that not many of the hundred thousand vets Simon estimates Walmart will hire over the next five years will take home even the average U.S. paycheck, let alone much above that figure. A hundred thousand hires over five years is just 20,000 a year, roughly four or five a year per Walmart store. So if you do the math Walmart’s offer to our veterans doesn’t add up to all that much.

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Walmart’s ‘Grandstand Move’: Let’s Do The Math