Mr. Sam’s meeting metamorphosis

Like much of small town America, the circus comes to town only once a year. That’s what Wal-Mart shareholders and Northwest Arkansas have come to expect each June.

Just like the always welcomed December visit by Santa, the annual Wal-Mart shareholders meeting completed on Friday its annual run.

Are there are noticeable changes being made to the annual meeting, we asked ourselves? Are the changes, just like those being made at every local Wal-Mart, an necessary evolution to maintain sales or an attempt at more corporate marketing?

The biggest question for long time Wal-Mart observers is: “Would Mr. Sam approve?” Of the business session watching the bottom line, he would, of course.

But Mr. Sam was all about fun and connecting with Associates from all over the globe too. Remember? His shareholder’s meeting was all about float trips and camp outs along the Big Sugar Creek in nearby Noel, Mo.

And then this annual management meeting morphed into a series of ice cream socials and picnics at the Walton’s residential front yard in downtown Bentonville.

This year the shareholder’s meeting was less of what it once was and more scripted and firmly directed for time and content than past spontaneous hijinks often led by Mr. Sam and pulled off by the CEO’s of the company.

Not so much today.

There are 37 top executives in the Wal-Mart management team. Unless you work for the company or write about Wal-Mart, most average households can’t name two or three of the top executives – even here in the retail giant’s backyard.

Yes, Mike Duke is still at the top of the Wal-Mart corporate ladder, as the president and CEO of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. He was on stage on Friday and held his commanding presence. He’s no Mr. Sam, but few individuals have the individual sparkle or personal charisma of a Mr. Sam.

We also doubt that Duke and most others on stage Friday, were wearing shirts and ties purchased from the shelves of their retailer – as Mr. Sam once bragged he always wore.

While few will complain about the selection of the celebrity host on Friday, the “big day” at the shareholders meeting, the original intent of the meeting, according to Walton’s own history, was to “trump up Wall Street support” for the retailer.

Walton had second thoughts, according to his “Made in America” biography. He thought it a “waste of money,” but decided to give the meetings a try anyway in hope of garnering support from Wall Street. What he may not have expected was, at the time, the love and admiration from the throngs of associates and the common man, who was brought to the meeting.

Those early meetings were more than the fiddle playing of a Jana Jae or the crooning of some rising pop star or even the hip-hop of a young rapper. There was a time that associates went through long lines of supplier tents collecting give-away items and took tons of “free stuff” samples, if you will, back home to Pearl, Miss., Hemet, Ca., or Valentine, Neb.

All that is gone now.

Suppliers and other “vendors” at Wal-Mart will say, off the record, of course, the retailer strong arms them for cash or services to pay for this week long meeting.

True, the City of Fayetteville, Northwest Arkansas, the University of Arkansas (which will receive over a million dollars for hosting the event) want the circus to come back to town each year. After moving to Fayetteville it began at Barnhill Arena and soon into the Walton-backed (Sam and brother Bud) Walton Area, where it has remained since 1994.

With the giant stage in place, there are roughly 17,000 seats for this gigantic venue.
The local Advertising and Promotions folks in Fayetteville note that cash register’s ring as 250 people are needed to set up the show for Wal-Mart. The two weeks preceding and a week after the show ends workers assemble and disassemble the more than 20 miles of cables needed for 38 projectors and the 75 audio cameras – and that’s only inside the venue.

It is now a Las Vegas or New York City style show. A big show, comparable to a national/international trade summit. The Shareholders meeting is an event, that despite losing its family fun focus, is welcomed back each year to Northwest Arkansas.

Let’s hope future sterile marketing changes don’t morph it into a meeting that could as easily be held in let’s say a Dallas, Atlanta, Denver or Philadelphia.

We want the circus to return and bring back the old-timey ways, perhaps with less scripted and sterile presentations.