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That would be, for instance, Kevin Clarke, a mild-mannered carpet salesman from Mentor, Ohio, and a loyal Wal-Mart customer, who went ballistic after his son bought a CD by a band named Godsmack that he thought God-awful, particularly a ditty called Voodoo, which seemed to be about suicide. Wal-Mart has long had a policy of banning so-called stickered CDs, those carrying a warning label that the content might not be suitable for children. But Godsmack was stickerless, so Wal-Mart stocked it, until Clarke hollered...
...music industry doesn't like Wal-Mart's policy, muttering under its collective breath about censorship and artistic freedom, but it won't buck the system. That's because Wal-Mart's reach is enormous, representing 10% to 15% of all U.S. CD sales. "It's very difficult to have a No. 1" without Wal-Mart, says a record-company executive. That's why even the biggest, baddest acts--Nirvana, Snoop Dogg--often clean up their acts to play Wal-Mart. But even that kind of screen isn't enough for parents such as Clarke, who hold Wal-Mart accountable...
...Wal-Mart has a clearly articulated view of its role in society and the economy--to be an "agent" for the consumer. The company views its job as finding out exactly what folks want and getting those products into the stores at the lowest possible cost. It's a strategy that has worked superbly. Wal-Mart earned $4.4 billion last year on sales of $139 billion. It serves 90 million to 100 million customers each week. So while Wal-Mart is a conservative company born of the rural South, it hasn't let that get in the way of some...
This kind of practical morality operates on a larger scale too. Take the sale of alcoholic beverages. Wal-Mart does not sell beer and wine in its traditional discount stores. Yet if you walk into many Wal-Mart supercenters, stores as big as 220,000 sq. ft. that combine a supermarket with a traditional Wal-Mart, you'll find plenty of Budweiser to put in the coolers being sold in sporting goods. Wine and beer are also sold in Sam's Clubs and in the company's new chain of downsized Neighborhood Markets, a.k.a. "small marts...
...distinction? Wal-Mart executives attribute the decision to the customers, who say they expect to be able to buy beer and wine in supercenters just as they do at competitors' stores of a similar type. Yet booze will remain verboten in fuddy-duddy old Wal-Mart discount stores. Explains Glass: "What's the difference between selling in a supercenter and a Wal-Mart? I can't tell you I can give you a definite answer. But I can tell you that I have a rationale for it." Nevertheless, within the company and without, there was muttering that Sam--Wal-Mart...