Wal-Mart Tries to Clean Up Its Image

Posted on Apr 17, 2006

The retailing giant will try to help small local businesses via grants and in-store radio ads, among other things. The chain has also started carrying organic products and made attempts at being more transparent in its business practices.
Hey, it’s a start...

AP:

Wal-Mart Tries to Modify Corporate Culture

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO, AP Business Writer, Sun Apr 16, 4:36 PM ET

After years of accusations that it caused the demise of thousands of smaller merchants, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is undertaking an unusual strategy: helping competing local establishments stay in business.

Wal-Mart recasting itself as a friendly neighbor? It’s the latest course change by the world’s largest merchant as it tries to modify its corporate culture—and the perception that it’s a ruthless competitor obsessed with maintaining its dominance of the retail industry.

Wal-Mart’s proposal to help rival small businesses, from bakeries to hardware stores, focuses on blighted urban markets where the retailer plans to open 50 stores within the next two years. The efforts will range from giving those businesses financial grants to producing free radio ads that will be broadcast on its stores’ radio network.

The image makeover extends to Wal-Mart’s selling floor as well. In recent months, for example, it has embraced organic products from baby clothes to fish caught in ecologically friendly ways.

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