As Others See Us (Gwen Moritz Commentary)

“Ah, would some power the giftee gi’e us,” wrote the poet Robert Burns, “to see ourselves as others see us.”

I’ve been taking note of the various ways others (that is, outside Arkansas) see our most famous corporate citizen. The subject of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has come up everywhere I’ve traveled this summer, including a professional conference in Detroit and pleasure trips to Florida and Ohio. I’ve also been taking note of the way Wal-Mart is covered by news organizations for which it is a huge out-of-state corporation competing in their markets.

My conclusion: Wal-Mart’s long-overdue PR campaign hasn’t started working.

Most fascinating to me was an article in Crain’s New York Business that pointed out the different receptions that Wal-Mart and Target have received in New York City. Five Target stores were welcomed with open arms. Meanwhile, city officials are actively engaged in a — successful, so far — campaign to keep Wal-Mart out. The stated reason for the stiff arm toward Wal-Mart is that the jobs it creates are not good, desirable jobs, although Crain’s demonstrated that Wal-Mart’s employment policy — particularly its success in keeping out unions — is not appreciably different from Target’s. The story suggested that the real reason is the far less noble snob factor: Target is seen as more fashionable than Wal-Mart, more in keeping with the way New York sees itself.

Wal-Mart, presumably, is more in keeping with the way New York sees Arkansas.

I can argue Wal-Mart from any angle. It kills mom-and-pop stores versus it was a mom-and-pop store that just had a better idea. It creates dead-end, low-paying jobs versus so did most of the mom-and-pop businesses it has displaced. It is hostile towards unions versus unions are the reason companies like GM and United Airlines are on the ropes.

Wal-Mart is shifting manufacturing jobs from the U.S. to China and other developing countries versus this may be the means to ending world poverty that we’ve all been praying for. On one hand, Wal-Mart is a drain on public health services because a relatively high percentage of its employees are unable to afford private insurance. On the other hand, don’t you wish Wal-Mart could work its pricing magic on health care costs?

In discussing Wal-Mart with relatives at a family reunion in Florida, I realized that none of the mitigating arguments have filtered down to the consumer level. They recognize that Wal-Mart offers low prices and take advantage of them freely, but they do not admire the company. They see it as a predator and feel vaguely guilty about shopping there. They don’t see Target in the same light at all. They feel smart shopping at Target. Target is hip; Wal-Mart is chintzy.

I prefer shopping at Target, too, because it is more convenient to my home and because the sheer size of the Wal-Mart Supercenter makes me feel like a vulnerable rat in a maze. But the only thing I really admire about Target is how skillfully its managers have been able to make a business plan that is virtually identical to Wal-Mart’s seem so totally different and better and more respectable. Unlike Wal-Mart, Target should be very satisfied with the way others see it.

(Gwen Moritz is editor of Arkansas Business in Little Rock. E-mail her at [email protected].)