May 6, 2025 • 52 mins
Four Walmart veterans with a combined 126+ years of experience gather to reveal how the legendary Saturday Morning Meeting became the cultural cornerstone that transformed American retail forever.
The conversation feels like stepping into a time machine to witness retail history firsthand. Andy Wilson hosts Arthur Emmanuel (38 years at Walmart), John Reeves (22 years), and Dallas Dobbs (36 years) as they share intimate stories about the weekly gathering that Sam Walton himself called "the very heart of Walmart culture."
What made these meetings so powerful? The veterans explain how they created a competitive advantage - while other retailers took weekends off, Walmart leaders gathered every Saturday morning to share insights, celebrate heroes, address weaknesses, and communicate strategy. By Monday, store managers had already implemented changes while competitors were just starting their week.
The unpredictability kept everyone engaged yet slightly nervous. Sam might suddenly sit at your table and ask about your department's numbers. Executives and buyers came prepared with "cheat sheets" of metrics, knowing they might be called upon without warning. The meetings balanced serious business with entertainment - from talent shows to Easter hat parades - creating an atmosphere that kept hundreds of managers returning each week with enthusiasm.
Most importantly, these gatherings reinforced principles still guiding Walmart today: listening to store associates ("Our best ideas come from clerks and stock boys"), maintaining strong supplier partnerships ("be firm but be fair"), and focusing relentlessly on merchandise excellence through programs like VPI (Volume Producing Item).
Whether you're a retail professional, business leader, or someone fascinated by how America's largest company was built, these firsthand accounts offer priceless insights into how culture becomes a competitive advantage. What leadership principles from Walmart's golden era could transform your organization today?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Okay, well, hello everyone, and welcome to Doing
Business in Bentonville.
I'm Andy Wilson and I'm thehost today, and we've got one of
the greatest podcasts coming up.
I have been thinking about thisfor so very long and I've got
some great friends surroundingme today and I'm going to
(00:21):
introduce them, and then we'regoing to get jumped straight
into this, but before we do that, I want to say something to all
of our viewers and listeners.
Thank you.
Without you, what I'm about totell you, it had not have been
possible, because what you'vedone you have now moved us to
100 countries that we're viewedin, and thank you for that,
because of your continuedsupport and that you share these
(00:44):
podcasts around the world andthat you have supported us.
So thank you so much.
All the credit belongs to youfor making this happen.
We're honored by it and we aremore than honored.
We're humbled by that.
Okay, we're going now to jumpinto this.
Now, these are three of greatfriends of mine, and we have one
thing in common We've allworked at walmart, right?
(01:07):
Yeah, so, so, anyway, we havejust and you're going to hear
some story listen, I don't knowwhere this thing's really going
to go today, so you know most ofthe time, I know, okay, I got a
script here hidden back hereand I'm sort of following that
script.
If you, you can see my iPadtoday, there's no script, okay,
so, but I'm very comfortablebecause I trust these men.
(01:27):
But this is John Reeves.
John, welcome.
How long have you been atWalmart, john?
I was with Walmart for 22 years.
Okay, and we'll get into allthe wonderful things you've done
at Walmart.
Arthur Emanuel, arthur, welcome, thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Officially 38 years, but I'm still involved in one
way or the other.
So all in all, about 45 yearsclose to it.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Arthur, I remember the first day I met you and I
think you were store manager, ifI'm not mistaken.
John, I remember the first dayI met you and, oh man, wait till
these stores start coming out.
This is Dallas Dobbs.
Dallas, welcome, thank you.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
I was with Walmart for 36 years.
36 years.
I'm not as old as Arthur, he'sa whole lot older.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
You started when you was a baby.
I thought when I first met you,you looked like 10 years old.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
I'm just saying it okay.
I think when I came into thecompany, I started in the field.
Yeah, I think when I came withthe company, I started in the
field.
Yeah, and I think when Istarted, did you start?
I did I started.
Yeah, yes, yes, assistantmanager trainee.
Well, I think you were anassistant when I started.
Really yeah, when did you start76, 1976.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
What year did you become a manager?
Oh, three years later.
Okay, yeah, 79.
Oh, three years later, okay, 79.
So you were in New Hampshire,yeah, yeah, so, and I was at
Walmart almost 30 years.
And so there we are.
Great, well, what we're goingto do, here's the title the day
of our content.
We're going to try to stay here, but we see where we go.
The title is the SaturdayMorning Meeting.
(03:00):
Wow, I remember.
You know we did it and we'regoing to lead off.
John's going to lead us off andhe's going to read a quote from
a great book.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yes, yeah, I'm going to read a quote from Sam Walton,
made in America my second mostreferenced book, andy, the Holy
Bible being the first.
You can't go wrong.
But here's what he says aboutthe Saturday morning meeting in
his book, on page 163.
He says take our Saturdaymorning meetings, for example.
Without a little entertainmentand a sense of the unpredictable
(03:32):
, how in the world could we everhave gotten those hundreds of
people most of our managers andsome associates from the general
offices here in Bentonville toget up every Saturday morning
and actually come in here withsmiles on their faces?
If they knew all they couldexpect in the meeting was
somebody droning on aboutcomparative numbers, followed by
(03:53):
a serious lecture on theproblems of our business, could
we have kept the meeting alive?
No way, no matter how stronglyI felt about the necessity of
that meeting, the folks wouldhave revolted.
And even if we still held it,it wouldn't be any good at all.
As it is, the Saturday morningmeeting is at the very heart of
the Walmart culture.
(04:13):
Wow, that's great.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
So what do you guys remember?
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Let's talk about the Saturday morning meeting
Thoughts, thoughts first of all,again, as John read, saturday
morning meeting.
It became legendary and everyCEO of a major corporation
wanted to come and attend thisSaturday morning meeting.
(04:39):
To me it was like horse rates,meaning our competitors.
You know, they worked hard,like us, monday through Friday,
but then they took a weekend offand then they came to their
(05:01):
offices on Monday.
In our case, we worked harduntil Friday and then we came
into their offices on Monday.
In our case, we worked harduntil Friday and then we came
into the Saturday morningmeeting.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
And when I was store manager, we would have a
conference call on Saturdays,point being, in our case, like
in a horse race, we got a headstart because of Saturday
morning meetings and wecommunicated that to the stores
(05:35):
and the stores had thosedirections executed by Monday,
while our competition came towork on a Monday.
Then they reviewed whathappened that week and then they
so we had, like in a horse race, we had an X number of head
start from our competition.
(05:59):
That's one of my biggestlessons learned.
Second thing was I can go onand on, but I won't give that.
We'll talk more about it.
But it was from entertainment.
Yeah, celebrities, we used tolook forward to who's going to
be there this Saturday, and myfavorite was Ed Nagy.
(06:21):
Yeah, I don't know, my favoritewas Ed Nagy.
Yeah, I don't know the storyabout Ed Nagy.
Is he wanted to see what isAndy Wilson wearing on a
Saturday morning?
Really, he was one of ourfashionistas.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
Yes, For sure In tank tops especially.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Yeah well, tank tops colored shirts and Ed Nagy used
to just make a ball with it.
I'm going to Andy Wilson's yardsale.
We had fun and we developedrelationships with Alice.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
I think we've got to back up a little bit to talk
about the room.
Actually, to be honest with you, the Saturday morning meeting
when I started in 1984 was inmaybe a 40 by 40 room in the
corner of warehouse number oneand to get to it you had to walk
(07:15):
from the offices through thewarehouse and it was a room that
was exposed.
Studs with paneling, noinsulation, so in wintertime
it's cold, in summertime it washot as all get out, but you had
(07:35):
to get there early.
One of the things aboutSaturday morning meeting was
it's supposed to start at 730,right, but when Sam was still
there and live, it started whenSam got there.
And if he got there at quartertill 7, right, but when Sam was
still there and live it startedwhen Sam got there, yeah, and if
he got there at quarter till 7,then that's when the meeting
started and you better beprepared.
You know, and I think when youreally think about the Saturday
(07:57):
morning meeting, one of thepurposes was to let everybody
know what the rest of thecompany was up to Exactly, and I
learned so much in the Saturdaymeeting.
A lot of people didn't want tocome, didn't want to work on
Saturday, especially people thatwe brought in from outside the
(08:18):
company.
But inside the company, Ilooked forward to it.
I will tell you I never went toone without a knot in my
stomach, because you know Samwould wander around and you
never know he might stop and siton the table right in front of
you and as stuff was going on,he'd turn around and he'd say so
(08:41):
what were your numbers lastweek?
And all the merchandising wentto that meeting with a cheat
sheet on their numbers, becauseif you got called on you
wouldn't remember.
So you had that written downsomewhere, right.
But it was always a unique,unique and, just like you said
(09:03):
about this podcast, there's noagenda.
There was never an agenda.
We knew things that were goingto happen, but we didn't really
have an agenda.
We celebrated heroes.
You remember all of you guysbringing people in from the
field department managers thathad done extraordinary things
(09:25):
and we celebrated those heroes.
We talked about our weaknessesand we addressed them.
One of the major things that wedid Always kept a knot in my
stomach was people like you andArthur, traveling the stores
during the week that on Saturday, found something that we
screwed up.
Right, john?
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
And I was frightened.
Arthur and.
I didn't do much of that, I'msure, but to be honest with you.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
I don't think we're the biggest offenders now.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
Yeah, no, you know, and I think that was a real
positive about both of you guysin that when you found the
problem, you called us.
Yeah, and we dealt with it and,proactively, by the Saturday
meeting, we had to fix and we'dstand up and talk about what
that fix was.
And the neat thing about thatwas it wasn't an opportunity to
(10:12):
slam dunk the buyer or theperson that made the mistake, it
was.
How can we translate this tothe rest of the company?
That's right, and how can weall learn from it?
And it always ended up being apositive Joe.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
What do you think Well, I just I remember the year
I came into the office, 1987,.
I was in the sales promotionarea at Dallas that you're
familiar with.
Yeah, In fact I may havereplaced you, I don't know.
Yeah, you came in behind me,Did you really?
One of the responsibilitiesthat I had was for the
auditorium number one.
(10:45):
Another responsibility was theVPI program.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
That was very you better explain what that is.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
The VPI program is the volume producing item
program and made famous by SamWalton and his moon pies.
And I just found out today thatDallas Dobbs was the buyer of
moon pies.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
And he's kind of we go out the way.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
That must have been a fun year for Dallas.
But in 1987, my first Saturdaymorning meeting, because I had
the VPI program, I also had tosolicit all the entries from the
store and we'd get thousands ofthem.
So I had two ladies that werejust great in the sales
promotion department that wouldgo through all of those.
(11:28):
It would give them a little bitof advice on you know what to
look for and they would land onmy desk on wednesday.
The vpis and I would go throughand select three winner and two
runner-ups for every region inthe company.
So there was a lot of entriesand then we would have a flyer
(11:49):
or a handout that we would haveon Saturday morning.
Well, knowing that it startedwhen Sam got there A and the
fact that the VPI program isvery dear to his heart, we had
to have those passed out in theauditorium prior to anything
going on.
And at that time I don't knowif you guys remember not that
they had a stage in theauditorium and they had tables
(12:11):
and the executives would be onthe stage.
So it was Sam and David Glassand Don Soderquist, all the
executives, and then a chair onthe end for me because I
presented the VPI program.
So talk about a knot in yourstomach the very first time you
do that, sitting next to Sam.
But man, was he ever great?
He loved to talk aboutmerchandise, so I would present
(12:33):
the VPI and he would elaborateon it.
Now, backing it up a day, Ialways had to communicate with
the buyers to let them know that, hey, one of their items has
been selected, and so thatsomebody like Dallas would be
prepared at the meeting to holdup the item and talk about it.
So that was my first Saturdaymeeting, was actually being up
(12:55):
on the stage and a lot of nerves.
But, man, what a greatopportunity for myself, because
it was exposure to other peoplein the company.
And a year later I got my firstbuying job, and most of that
due to the exposure that I gotfrom the VPI program in the
Saturday morning meeting.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
Yeah, my first Saturday morning meeting.
I remember the day, arthur, itwas July the 10th 1984.
And back then everybody thatcame into the office they
introduced at Saturday morningmeeting, right and Bill Smith,
you guys remember.
Sure, he was my boss at thetime.
(13:36):
He was the director of salespromotion, right Marketing, now
now.
But since rush, and he stood upand introduced me and and I'll
never forget it, had a visual ofit that I'll keep till the day
I die um, that front table inthe old meeting room, sam was
sitting on the front of it anddavid glass was up there and
(13:56):
Paul Carter and Jack Shoemakerand Don Sodaquist and several
others.
But Smith got up and heintroduced me and I was, you
know, just going to stand up andsay wave and say hey, I'm glad
to be here.
And after he introduced me, samlooked at it, was quiet for a
(14:20):
second.
And Sam looked at Bill and hesaid well, bill, we're on a
hiring freeze.
Can you tell me why Dallas ishere?
You know what Bill said.
He said well, sam, you know, Idon't think I could tell it as
good as Dallas can.
Dallas, why don't you tell themwhy you're here?
So I said something reallyunprofound, I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
But I made it for another 34 years, so it was okay
.
Oh my gosh, let me read a quotefrom Sam Walken.
I want these guys to keep going, but you know, sam, it's so
many quotes, but one of thequotes I want to read today.
I think it's very pertinent towhat we're talking about.
Sam says communicate everythingyou possibly can to your
partners.
You know his partners were allof us and all the people at
(15:12):
Walmart, the associates and thenanyone else that had business
with Walmart.
He said the more they know, themore they'll understand.
The more they understand, themore they'll care.
Once they care, there's nostopping them.
(15:32):
And you know we could say itwas no stopping us, because
that's exactly what we weredoing on saturday morning,
fridays also, but saturdaymornings, because we all grew up
in the source.
We worked on saturdays.
You know we did that, so goingto this was like a celebration
for us, wasn't it?
so I mean we got to hang out,you know, with the leaders of
(15:55):
walmart.
And here we were, young andgrowing up and we were just
drinking in all of thatknowledge and wisdom and
information, you know, and thenthere was no stopping Right.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
So go ahead Head start on a competition.
Yeah, to me, every Saturdaywhen we walked in, if you
remember, there was a sign thatsaid through these doors, walk
ordinary people doingextraordinary things.
(16:33):
Yeah, and every Saturday when Iwalked through there, it made
me feel, hey, I am an ordinaryperson and this company is
giving me an opportunity to doextraordinary thing.
And then when we went inthrough those doors because a
(16:56):
company, like a retail companyand many others, they are so
interdependent on each other theSaturday morning meeting, to
what you just read, both Sam'sand the culture of this company
was to communicate with eachother.
The Saturday morning meeting,to what you just read, both SAMS
and the culture of this companywas to communicate with each
other, build relations.
You don't know who we'd besitting next to.
I was in operation and Dallaswould be sitting next to me and
the guy from logistics would besitting next to me, or legal.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Or legal.
We said yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
So we built some intradepartmental relationships
that came in very handy for themove and the communication.
So the communication was then,and now is, a key core value of
(17:38):
Walmart.
So that was another big dealfor us.
And then, once again, as youmentioned, have fun.
There was a sign, if youremember Sam Walton in a straw
hat that said don't takeyourself so seriously, put on a
silly hat and sing a song.
And it was fun.
(17:59):
And, by the way, the otherlesson was you better be
prepared for your particulararea, right?
You have no clue what is goingto be asked of you and some of
us who were in the field.
We'll get there at 6 o'clock inthe morning and review all our
(18:20):
stores.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Because you have no clue 120, 30 stores we had.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
Sam will get there and he may ask a store like
Atoka, Oklahoma.
It's a little bitty store buthe could ask you a question if
that was your store.
Hey, what's going on in Atoka?
I saw their numbers and theylook good or bad, whatever it is
.
So us regionals had to beprepared, with all our 100
(18:47):
stores.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
And you know, most of the time, he already knows the
answer yes.
So you better not say somethingthat wasn't real, yes, and so
did the other leaders.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Like the glasses and the soda quiche, we were blessed
Right and in those meetings,like you said, us young pups, we
got the opportunity to buildrelationships with senior
leadership and so on.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
So be prepared, walk through those doors with
ordinary people like us doingextraordinary things,
communication, have fun, andthere's many other key learnings
from that, but that's the onesthat come to mind, and you know
(19:34):
our jobs, all of our jobs in theoffice.
I don't care who you were, evenif you were the janitor.
It was a stressful situation.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
And to your point of VPI, it was fun, right, but
there was an opposite award toVPI, called fish.
First in still here, I think Iwon it a few times I won it no
seriously.
And that was part of the fun.
Yeah, okay, you picked an item.
It a few times, I won it.
No seriously, and that was partof the fun.
Okay, you picked an item.
(20:02):
It's doing great and we'll havefun with it and you'll get a
plaque for that.
Whoever and the seniorleadership had to participate in
it.
David Glass was awarded a fishaward with an actual fish, a
stinking fish.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
We gave that at one of the yearly meetings.
Yeah, yearly meetings.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Part of being, you know, have fun.
And the message there of theVPI was you know, mr Glass
always used to say we are amerchandise-driven company.
Yeah, and from that generatedthe VPI thing that Sam came up
with just to keep us focused onmerchandising.
And particularly he was one ofthe best and, like you, igor,
(20:46):
item merchant.
Yeah, he loved itemmerchandising.
Yes, he did, oh, boy, and weused to have fun with those
items merchandising in theSaturday morning meetings.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
You know, I think and there were two merchants in the
room with us, but let's talkabout that but we were a
merchandise-driven company.
We are, Walmart is amerchandise-driven company.
You sit and you walk throughstores today even which is
awesome that philosophy is stillhere in Walmart, but that's a
big deal.
Yeah, and I don't know whatyour job was.
(21:19):
You had to have a merchant thathad an item, didn't you?
I mean, he required Sam,required everyone to be.
You know, and we'll talk aboutthe stores in a bit, but talk
about that from your perspective, both of you.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
Well, after the morning meeting, Senator, I was
in a merchant meeting and, as abuyer, if you weren't standing
up talking about your business,your boss thought you weren't
doing your job.
Yeah, and it was all arounditems.
Usually we'd get up and show anitem that we had found or a
department manager had sent aVPI in on.
That was doing really well andhow they did it.
(21:55):
And you know, like the moon pie, I tell you I had a store, call
me one Monday morning on moonpies and say I had something I
wanted to share with you.
I didn't have time to turn itin in the VPI but I ordered Back
in those days they wereordering with the Red Books
(22:15):
Remember Red Books, right whenyou had inventory one half of
the square and what you're goingto order on the other half, and
he put down to order 20 cases.
Well, the person at store levelthat keyed it, in which we
didn't have computers theneither, keyed in 200 cases and
it would take a while for astore to sell 200 cases of a
(22:39):
Moon Pie, but he decided thathe'd go to the front.
He built a display of Moon Pie,but he decided that he'd go to
the front.
He built a display of Moon Piesand he brought a microwave up
there with him too which was abrand new thing in the industry
microwaves were and he wouldheat a microwave for 10 seconds
Moon Pie microwave and then cutit up and just hand it out to
(23:00):
people as they came in and soldthrough that NCAP.
200 cases in one weekend aFriday, saturday and Monday,
because we were closed on Sundayand it was interesting.
I went and shared it with Samand you know what Sam's VPI was
(23:21):
the next year.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Yes, we do all know.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Well, that was part of it, but one of his real VPI's
was microwave oven, and that'swhen they started demonstrating
cooking in microwave ovens atthe front door.
That started the samplingprogram in the entire world.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
I didn't realize that's what I was talking about.
Yeah, it was really somethingyou know.
Someone always tells us, if youknow we would, if there was
some state, we would turn itinto something positive.
That was our mindset and that'sexactly what happened.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
You know people talk about making lemonade out of a
lemon.
Right, vpi program was thatalso, it was underdeveloped
items.
How can you find them?
And it was items and it was amistake.
But rather than crucifyingsomeone, it gave them an
opportunity.
(24:18):
How do you turn that lemon intoa lemonade?
So we learned a lot from VPI.
And then, of course, theunderdeveloped items and so on.
Right.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
That reminds me, arthur, of one of the things I
remember distinctly about you inthe Saturday morning media was
the Bucket of Time program.
Bucket of Time program.
The philosophy with that wasare there items out there that
you can add on to a purchase,that you could add on and put in
(24:50):
the cart?
And if I remember right, thatwas championed by Arthur Emanuel
himself and he would get up inthe meetings and talk about
Bucket of Time items and Buck,buck, buck, that's right, bucket
of time.
And that was another way thatyou got everybody that was at
that meeting together and ittook people that could take on
(25:12):
the responsibility.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
The background of that was at that particular time
I forgot the exact numbers, butwe had almost like 100 million
transactions a week, right.
And then we used to talk aboutcross merchandising If the sales
(25:35):
were down and it started offwith hey, if we can just get
those 100 million transactionsjust one more dollar, that's 100
million dollars a week, right.
And you do that throughcross-merchandising and this and
that, and that's so muchsupport from you guys and the
(25:55):
whole company up to thedepartment manager level.
So it was not that Buck, buckBuck didn't become famous or
successful because of us in thehome office.
It was that department managerat the store that made it happen
.
Right, that's right.
They came up with morecross-merchandising idea than we
could ever think of, right, andit got the whole company
(26:19):
excited about Buck at a time,and of all the things I did in
my career at Walmart, from beinga regional vice president,
senior VP, opening Argentina andBrazil people still remember me
.
Yeah, just Buck, buck, buck.
I remember.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Yeah, Let me read another quote and I want to hear
you guys think about thingsaround this, but the other quote
, really what I'm going to read.
He says the key to success isto get out into the store and
listen to what the associateshave to say.
(26:55):
It's terribly important foreveryone to get involved.
Our best ideas come from clerksand stock boys.
So what do you think of whenyou hear Sam?
Because he told us that everySaturday morning to get in the
stores, right, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
I got to tell you, andy, it's a philosophy that I
adhere to today.
I mean, I still get in thestores.
It drives my wife crazysometimes because what do you
have?
You're at the stores again, butthings change a lot and having
your finger on the pulse ofwhat's going on in the store, I
(27:36):
think, is critical to no matterwhat you do or how your career
evolves.
It's still where things happen.
That's where things happen, andI always look at what people
are putting in their carts andwondering why they made that
decision.
Even with Omnichannel andeverything else that you have
going on today, I still thinkthat's the most important thing
(27:59):
is that transaction that happensat the store and the people
that are out there every singleday.
They're the ones that know itbest.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
And the Saturday morning meetings became a big
vehicle to keep moving thatforward.
Because us, you know, we werein stores every week and we
would give an example of whatwas happening in a store and you
guys as merchants happening ina store, and you guys as
merchants were in the store andSaturday morning himself he
would bring up or recognize somedepartment manager or a store
(28:30):
manager or a clerk from thatweek when he was in the store
and other leaders, and everySaturday morning, if you go back
and look at it, there wasexamples given why that saying
that you just read was soimportant that our best ideas
come from the store and thoseideas were shared by us at every
(28:52):
Saturday morning meeting, oneor two here and there.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
Oh yeah, yeah, it was always.
I love to tour the store withSam.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Oh, yes, I want to talk about some of our store
tours for sam, so go ahead.
Speaker 4 (29:03):
that's great, but he uh he was just, uh, a bowl full
of questions and and you knowthat store managers would all be
nervous as a cat when sam wouldbe in the area, right, and it
was always a phone calls wereburning up.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
that's right.
Where?
Where is he?
We tracked him.
We didn't have a satellite, wetracked him.
That's right.
That's right.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
But when I was in marketing and I traveled with
him, he'd always give me hisyellow pad because he talked
with his hands and I'd take thenotes and I'm sure he did that
with everybody that traveledwith him.
But his interest was really inthe store associates and he'd
(29:47):
see, you know, a departmentmanager.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
We'd be walking down the Action Alley with the group
touring and he'd see adepartment manager an aisle over
back in the cross aisle sectionand he'd leave the group and
he'd go back, yeah, yeah, andfind that person just to talk
and you knew not to follow himwhen he left that group because
he needed some one-on-one,because he, you know, he went
(30:09):
back there to ask thatdepartment manager how that
store manager was doing, yeah,and and he wanted the real deal,
you know, and he got it, youknow, because they, they just,
they just trust this out, yeah,but to this point that's where
he went and learned, we all did.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
And I love touring competition with him.
That was always fun Because hewas always looking for something
they were doing better than usRight, dallas, I'm going to
underline that.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
The first tour I've done with Sam in competition, I
talked about what they weredoing poorly.
My mistake I was called out.
That's fairly not a nice way,but you know.
In other words, what I learnedwas he's not interested in that,
he wants what they're doinggreat.
So we can improve that, right,right.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
There's a very famous story about that Him and Bud
and another executive.
They were visiting stores andwent into a competition and this
other key executive at thattime who was pretty I mean
pretty instrumental in Walmart'ssuccess they came out, so he's
driving.
He said okay, bud, what'd yousee?
Bud, his brother right.
(31:20):
Yeah, bud his brother.
I asked the other executivewhat'd you see, bud his brother?
Right, yeah, bud his brother.
I asked the other executivewhat'd you see?
A dirty store, and you know theauto stocks.
And the executive turned to himand said what'd you see, mr
Sapp?
He said I found these pillowsthat they're selling two for a
dollar.
I'm a two for five dollars, orsomething like that.
(31:42):
He said that's a great item,so-and-so, you need to get with
the buyer and get us thosepillows To your exact point.
He always looked at and Ivisited.
I was a store manager inDyersburg, tennessee, and you
know, get a call, pick me up atthe airport.
Huh, yeah, went to the callpick me up at the airport.
(32:03):
Huh yeah, Went to the airport,picked him up.
First thing he does is let's goto Kmart.
Yeah, we went to Kmart.
Usually did that before you hitthe mall or something.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Oh, yeah, always.
Speaker 4 (32:16):
He had already counted the cars.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
Cars.
That's right, and I'll bedamned he found out more about
Kmart from a little olddepartment manager there,
because he had that abilityabout him, like being a
grandfather kind of an ability.
He would find out more aboutthe competition, what's selling
good, what's selling bad, thisand that, and then we went to my
(32:42):
store.
So competition piece and welearned all that.
And then we went to my store,so competition piece and we
learned all that.
So he practiced everything hepreached.
So did our other leaders.
You know the glasses.
Speaker 4 (32:52):
He had such respect in the industry.
Everybody knew him too.
I went and toured a Targetstore with him once, and we did
that before we hit the Walmart,and as soon as he hit the front
door, people knew him.
The store manager for theTarget store ended up within two
or three minutes wanted apicture with him yeah, and
(33:13):
wanted a picture with him, andSam was, so he was just one of
those people that you justtrusted too, and, of course, sam
, before we left the store hewanted to hire the manager right
because he's running a goodTarget store.
But Target had just implementeda new receiving program I can't
remember the name of it, but itwas a number and Sam had been
(33:35):
talking to the store manager.
He said, hey, I understand youguys have this new receiving
program.
Can you tell me about it?
And the guy says, sure, let mejust take you in the back.
Oh, we'll sit through it.
And he walked us through thewhole thing, I mean, and Sam
came back with a plan forWalmart how to take what they
were doing and improve on it.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
And connecting it to Saturday morning meetings.
You know, we were expected tobe in competition and we were
expected to give some kind of anupdate on some kind of not
every Saturday, but a bitdifferent person.
It'd be a merchant.
He would ask you you know, haveyou been to so-and-so
competition?
Did you notice this and that?
(34:15):
And all that became part ofthis Saturday morning meeting.
It was not only talking aboutWalmarts, but it was also
talking about meeting, right, itwas not only talking about
Walmart, but it was also talkingabout competition, right, and
in every area, not justoperators or merchants, and it
was the construction people.
Somebody's building a betterstore than us or had this idea
(34:37):
about this in their area, andall that.
So we'll talk about competitionin those and that was
communicated to everyone.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Right, hey, I remember him saying in the
Saturday morning meeting hewould say who's been in the
stores this week, who's been out?
Right, exactly.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
Other than the operators.
If you're a, volunteer.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
You might call on you .
Where did you go this week?
What did you see?
Speaker 4 (34:59):
So you had to be ready.
Well, so be ready.
As merchants, we traveled oncea month with a bridge for four
days.
Go out on Monday morning,sometimes Sunday evening, come
back on Thursday and then you'dget prepared for the Friday and
Saturday morning mentions.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
You were expected to, after you had that time, eat
what you cook.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Talk about that.
What is for our viewers?
Eat what you cook.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Eat what you cook, and they still do it today, by
the way.
I still see mentions of eat whatyou cook, but basically it was
as a buyer.
You would go work in the storefor a couple of days and
normally I would go and set amodular, like if I just had a
modular land in the stores.
We'd go out and set it.
Sometimes it'd be an overnightthing, where you'd bring in your
(35:44):
supplier base and all meetthere and basically you would
learn from the eyes of the storewhat your product is and how
they perceive it.
And, my goodness, could youlearn a lot about how they
execute your items and what youcan take back to do better as
you were planning for theupcoming seasons or whatever,
(36:06):
and you know what he and I therewere a lot of fun too.
We had a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
I think what you just said, too, was highlighted, is
that you would take the supplierwith you, right?
So you know, from thestandpoint of suppliers, they
were bought in just as much,almost as much as you were to
the success of Walmart, becausethey were your partners.
And, of course, now we havethis opportunity to live in
(36:33):
northwest Arkansas, wherethere's over 3,000 supplier
offices in this area, and I hadTom Luccio recently he talked
about parton campbell, was oneof the first to go here, you
know, and but that's the thingit was.
It was all such a team, wasn'tit even into outside the walmart
(36:55):
if you didn't work for walmart,but, like the merchant, like
they were part of your team,right, sam used to talk about
that as a win-win relationship.
Speaker 4 (37:04):
Right, there's no buildings out there that had
Procter Gamble on the front andthere's no manufacturing
facilities that Walmart owned.
So for both of us to besuccessful, we both had to win.
Both of us had to make money.
I can tell you, when Samrenegotiated the price on moon
pies, we went from 14.5 cents to12.5 cents apiece, and he was
(37:30):
tenacious on it.
But you know, once the companycame back and said, okay, we'll
give you 2 cents off, and Samthanked him for it.
And then he said now can youmake money at 12 and a half
cents?
And the supplier I mean he wasspeechless for a minute and he
said afterwards, after Sam leftthe meeting, he said to me he
(37:53):
said you know, I've never had aretailer care if I made any
money or not, but it had to be awin-win situation or neither
one of us would have done it.
That's a great story.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
Yeah, and he had a special relationship with
suppliers that he preached to us.
It was only him.
David Glass did that Shoemaker,and we were taught or preached
to at Saturday morning meetingsbe firm but be fair.
(38:25):
And as I think about what'sgoing on right now with these
terrorists and all that, we doneed to remember be firm but be
fair.
And that was our reputation,and every once in a while John,
some knucklehead, will kind ofgo his own way.
But be firm but be fair, Becausewe are in a business to buy and
(38:52):
sell.
Selling happens in a store, soyou got to have clean stores,
you got to have this.
That Buying happens with asupplier.
Like you said, we were in nomanufacturing.
That principle still applies.
Right, Buy, sell, and thenthere's a lot of dots in between
.
Right, they have to play theirrole in this.
(39:14):
But be firm but be fair At ranktimes our buyers and everyone
else that deals with the outsidefirm, just remember be firm but
be fair.
(39:35):
Like you said, he asked thisMoonpile guy can you make money
at 12.5 cents?
Because he was interested intheir well-being too.
It wasn't to break them or tospy for brand coverage, and that
has just kind of become part ofthe culture.
Yeah, and for a company oursize to believe in.
All that thing happened becauseof Saturday morning meeting,
(39:58):
Right, Because those kind ofmessages that's where we shared
it got to everyone, Whether youwere in construction, legal,
this, this, this Right.
Speaker 4 (40:12):
So Should I tell the story about the relative to
direction coming on Saturdaymeeting about the signed shop,
you know.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
I think you should, and then we're going to begin to
wrap.
So you, gentlemen, be thinkingabout that and please do,
because that's a great story.
Yeah, it's a great culturestory.
Speaker 4 (40:29):
Well, and Arthur mentioned it, you know, after
the Saturday meeting we all cameout of that meeting with a
to-do list, basically, andeverybody that was in that
meeting, if they traveled thestores, they took that list with
them and before I came into theoffice I was in store 115.
Do you know where that is?
West?
Speaker 1 (40:48):
Point Mississippi.
Yeah, yeah, I was just down theroad, right yeah, amory or
Aberdeen, amory and Aberdeen.
Speaker 3 (40:55):
Yeah, I thought so yeah, I was in both of those
stores and I was in West Helena,arkansas, yeah, arkansas, yeah,
yeah man, I think that's true.
Speaker 4 (41:01):
I'm in the.
Speaker 3 (41:01):
South John.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
I was in.
Speaker 4 (41:04):
Stillwater.
But anyway, we were in an oldstore store 115, and 41,000
square feet, but that was theaverage size of the store back
then.
That's a neighborhood markettoday, right, but we did.
Those stores built this company, they did.
But we had an old building andan old sign and the sign was a
(41:26):
wooden sign and it was lightedwith spotlights and we were
getting an updated sign.
And the Mitchell building iswhere we used to make all of our
signs and they'd throw them onthe back of the truck and then
they'd drive them to the storeand we had a person that would
put them up.
So we knew that we were gettinga new sign.
So Monday morning I'm openingthe store it's 6 o'clock in the
(41:49):
morning and I hear this knock onthe front door Bang, bang, bang
bang.
And I look out because it wasthe cash offices back then.
We're at the front, get thestore open.
And I looked out and there'sthis guy in blue jeans and a
flannel shirt and a ball cap.
So I went down there and said,hey, we're not open yet and he
(42:10):
goes hey, I'm so-and-so from thesign shop.
I've got your new sign I've gotto put up.
I said great, oh great We'vebeen expecting you Opened the
door up and started to tell himhe could do where he could plug
his drill up and all that stuffand he goes.
Well, before we do that, I'dlike to get a cup of coffee and
(42:31):
I'd like to walk your store.
And I said, well, okay, well,we had all gotten that list from
the Saturday meetings to Mondaymorning and he had those notes
and he walked the store lookingfor this feature and for this
modular and walked the back room, which was really important
(42:54):
back then because it was door tofloor, right, you didn't keep
anything in the back room thatyou couldn't, but that was part
of the beauty in thecommunication coming out of the
Saturday morning.
It was that everybody was onthe same page.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
You know, dallas.
To sum up our conversation, youknow the Saturday morning
meeting.
It was a tool for communication, it was a tool for motivation,
and it was a tool for motivationand it was a tool for learning.
But what you just described isa tool for reinforcing the
culture.
Yeah, because there a guy froma sign shop had the notes from
(43:34):
Saturday morning meeting.
So Sam used to say if we canget this message from here to
the person pushing the shoppingcarts in, then we're successful.
We've done it.
We've got the message all theway down to the people.
Now the bottom may be someonepulling the carts in, but we
(43:55):
didn't have those carts.
We do a lot less business, sothat person is still very, very
important.
So I'm not minimizing theimportance of that person, but
that's what Sam's goal was,wasn't it?
It's to get the message all theway.
And we did it.
We got it done and everyone gotit done in those days.
Speaker 3 (44:15):
And it still can be done and must be done.
You see John Furner out in thestores regularly.
You see Doug McMillan out inthe stores regularly.
You see Doug McMillan out inthe stores.
But there needs to be more thanjust John Furner and Doug
McMillan.
Right, you're right.
And every division and so on,and the communication piece.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
Right, perfect, Dallas.
Any closing comments.
Speaker 4 (44:41):
No, I appreciate the opportunity to get together with
you guys.
It's always good to see oldfriends.
We worked really hard in thosedays.
We came in at 6 in the morning.
When I took the job they toldme I had to be here at 7.30.
If I wasn't in my chair at 6o'clock I was late and we never
(45:02):
left until after 6.
That's right, and you didn'tnever left until after 6.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
That's right.
And you didn't get a goodparking spot.
That's right.
That's the problem.
Speaker 4 (45:08):
And when I first got here we parked in the ditch in
front of the office.
When it rained you had to gomove your vehicle or something
Covered up in water.
Speaker 1 (45:17):
John, any final thoughts?
Speaker 2 (45:23):
Yeah, just you know we've talked a lot about the
business part of this and alittle bit about the fun, but I
remember specifically somereally, really fun things that
took place in the Saturdaymorning meeting, and one of them
was on a Saturday morning theRazorback football team was
playing South Carolina andFayetteville.
It took probably a one o'clockkickoff.
Well, like Arthur mentioned,everybody that was anywhere near
Bentonville wanted to go to theSaturday morning meeting and in
(45:46):
this particular case it was thehead coach of South Carolina,
sparky Woods, shows up, and ofcourse you know Sam, oh, get up
and say something.
And then Sam said OK, well, weneed to call the hog.
Yeah, always we need somebody tolead it.
Sparky, why don't you lead it?
Anybody that ever worked withSam could not refuse anything
(46:08):
that he asked you to do.
So Sparky Wood said okay,everybody, nobody says any word
about this, it doesn't get out.
He led everybody in calling thehogs.
I thought that was testament tothe influence of Sam Walton.
And the other one that Idistinctly remember was one
Saturday morning when Sam saidthings are a little, we need to
(46:31):
perk things up a little bit.
Why don't we have a talent show?
And he points somebody youorganize a talent show and for
the next, probably 10 Saturdaymorning meetings, we had Walmart
associates that had talent,yeah, some that didn't, some
that didn't.
Speaker 1 (46:48):
I remember some that did.
Speaker 4 (46:50):
That was one of those .
Speaker 2 (46:52):
They would sing or dance or do skits or whatever,
and it just lightened everythingup.
Speaker 3 (46:57):
One of the songs we used to sing oh Lord, it's Hard
to Be.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
Oh Lord, it's Hard to Be.
Speaker 3 (47:03):
Sam will lead it.
He'll sing.
Speaker 2 (47:05):
I also recall the time that David, sam and Don saw
this on Easter, put the Easterhats on and sang Easter Parade.
I remember that Everybody itwas stressful.
Yes, when you showed up likeDallas said you didn't want to
miss, you would say, yeah, thisis my Saturday off, but gosh,
what's going on.
Then I miss it.
(47:25):
You would worry about what youmissed and then you'd find out
Competitive, fun-spirited.
Speaker 3 (47:29):
You know him doing the hula at Wall Street, the
chief financial officer riding awhite horse, downtown
Bentonville with a pink wig Allour Saturday meetings were for
me with a pink wig.
All our Saturday meetings wereFor me, andy, to close it off,
and I recommend all my friends,your friends and our friends
(47:51):
that are listening to thispodcast to read this book.
Go buy it.
Yeah, it's called Build to Last, and this book compared
companies in that century, theones who have been successful
and the ones who failed.
And the companies that held onto their core values succeeded
(48:16):
and this was they.
Compared Walmart to one of thecompetitors.
I won't name them, but this iswhat was written about Walmart,
the reason for their success andtheir core values.
Walmart, we exist to providevalue to our customers, to make
their lives better.
(48:36):
We are lower prices and greaterselection.
All else is secondary.
Werner and Doug are stillpracticing that's right.
And and Doug are stillpracticing that.
That's right.
And the company is stillpracticing that.
Swim upstream Buck.
Conventional wisdom that wasSam here, 8% net profit on the
(48:56):
bottom line that was swimmingupstream when he did the whole
thing, and on and on it goesStill applies.
Be in partnership withemployees what you read Right
Still applies today.
Work with passion, commitmentand enthusiasm Still applies,
(49:17):
and our people are doing that.
Run lean expenses Expensesstill matter.
And pursue ever higher goalsstill matters.
And then some companies such asJohnson, johnson and Walmart,
made their customers central totheir ideology.
(49:41):
Still, if you listen to themessages from the key leaders,
whether it be Sam's or Doug orJohn, still matters.
So that's the key to thesuccess of Walmart.
That culture was created throughthat Saturday morning meeting.
All these things werecommunicated to us in those days
(50:03):
in Saturday morning meetings.
Today, we things werecommunicated to us in those days
in Saturday morning meetings.
Today we have different meansof communicating, but these core
values still apply.
Still apply.
I just drove.
I had a meeting today.
I just drove through the newcampus, the building I was in.
You know the name of thebuilding Old Roy.
(50:25):
Yeah, the culture is still.
The campus is a history lesson.
Speaker 2 (50:30):
History in itself.
Speaker 1 (50:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (50:32):
It is, but thank you so much.
Yes, just like John and Dallas,I feel honored to be part of
this podcast and willing to helpanyone that I can help to
continue to tell the Walmartstory, because Walmart story,
(50:52):
walmart success, is a successfor a customer.
Walmart success with employeesis or with the suppliers is
providing jobs to the millionsof people around the world in
the communities they didn't havea job, don't know what they
will do.
So when Sam said, hey, look outworld, here we'll come, we'll
(51:15):
improve the standard of livingaround the world, the present
day company is still practicingthat.
My only request is that we keeppreaching, be firm, but be fair
, especially during these tryingtimes.
Right, now.
Speaker 1 (51:33):
Well said, arthur, arthur.
Thank you Dallas, thank youJohn.
Thank you, it's been a pleasureto all of our viewers and
guests.
Thank you so much.
This has been a wonderful,wonderful time together.
We're great friends and I hopeyou've really enjoyed our
podcast.
Let's hear from you when wepost this podcast.
You can go to our website.
It'sdoingbusinessinbettenvillecom.
(51:53):
You can check it out there.
There will be, of course, ourpodcast will be there, along
with some bios and informationon our guests today, so you can
reach out to them if you wouldlike, and there'll be
information there.
Again, to all of our viewersand watchers.
Again, thank you for makingthis happen.
We really appreciate you.
Gentlemen.
What a day.
Speaker 3 (52:14):
Thank you very much.
Goodbye everyone, thank you,bye-bye.
Okay, well, hello everyone, and welcome to Doing
Business in Bentonville.
I'm Andy Wilson and I'm thehost today, and we've got one of
the greatest podcasts coming up.
I have been thinking about thisfor so very long and I've got
some great friends surroundingme today and I'm going to
(00:21):
introduce them, and then we'regoing to get jumped straight
into this, but before we do that, I want to say something to all
of our viewers and listeners.
Thank you.
Without you, what I'm about totell you, it had not have been
possible, because what you'vedone you have now moved us to
100 countries that we're viewedin, and thank you for that,
because of your continuedsupport and that you share these
(00:44):
podcasts around the world andthat you have supported us.
So thank you so much.
All the credit belongs to youfor making this happen.
We're honored by it and we aremore than honored.
We're humbled by that.
Okay, we're going now to jumpinto this.
Now, these are three of greatfriends of mine, and we have one
thing in common We've allworked at walmart, right?
(01:07):
Yeah, so, so, anyway, we havejust and you're going to hear
some story listen, I don't knowwhere this thing's really going
to go today, so you know most ofthe time, I know, okay, I got a
script here hidden back hereand I'm sort of following that
script.
If you, you can see my iPadtoday, there's no script, okay,
so, but I'm very comfortablebecause I trust these men.
(01:27):
But this is John Reeves.
John, welcome.
How long have you been atWalmart, john?
I was with Walmart for 22 years.
Okay, and we'll get into allthe wonderful things you've done
at Walmart.
Arthur Emanuel, arthur, welcome, thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Officially 38 years, but I'm still involved in one
way or the other.
So all in all, about 45 yearsclose to it.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Arthur, I remember the first day I met you and I
think you were store manager, ifI'm not mistaken.
John, I remember the first dayI met you and, oh man, wait till
these stores start coming out.
This is Dallas Dobbs.
Dallas, welcome, thank you.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
I was with Walmart for 36 years.
36 years.
I'm not as old as Arthur, he'sa whole lot older.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
You started when you was a baby.
I thought when I first met you,you looked like 10 years old.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
I'm just saying it okay.
I think when I came into thecompany, I started in the field.
Yeah, I think when I came withthe company, I started in the
field.
Yeah, and I think when Istarted, did you start?
I did I started.
Yeah, yes, yes, assistantmanager trainee.
Well, I think you were anassistant when I started.
Really yeah, when did you start76, 1976.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
What year did you become a manager?
Oh, three years later.
Okay, yeah, 79.
Oh, three years later, okay, 79.
So you were in New Hampshire,yeah, yeah, so, and I was at
Walmart almost 30 years.
And so there we are.
Great, well, what we're goingto do, here's the title the day
of our content.
We're going to try to stay here, but we see where we go.
The title is the SaturdayMorning Meeting.
(03:00):
Wow, I remember.
You know we did it and we'regoing to lead off.
John's going to lead us off andhe's going to read a quote from
a great book.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yes, yeah, I'm going to read a quote from Sam Walton,
made in America my second mostreferenced book, andy, the Holy
Bible being the first.
You can't go wrong.
But here's what he says aboutthe Saturday morning meeting in
his book, on page 163.
He says take our Saturdaymorning meetings, for example.
Without a little entertainmentand a sense of the unpredictable
(03:32):
, how in the world could we everhave gotten those hundreds of
people most of our managers andsome associates from the general
offices here in Bentonville toget up every Saturday morning
and actually come in here withsmiles on their faces?
If they knew all they couldexpect in the meeting was
somebody droning on aboutcomparative numbers, followed by
(03:53):
a serious lecture on theproblems of our business, could
we have kept the meeting alive?
No way, no matter how stronglyI felt about the necessity of
that meeting, the folks wouldhave revolted.
And even if we still held it,it wouldn't be any good at all.
As it is, the Saturday morningmeeting is at the very heart of
the Walmart culture.
(04:13):
Wow, that's great.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
So what do you guys remember?
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Let's talk about the Saturday morning meeting
Thoughts, thoughts first of all,again, as John read, saturday
morning meeting.
It became legendary and everyCEO of a major corporation
wanted to come and attend thisSaturday morning meeting.
(04:39):
To me it was like horse rates,meaning our competitors.
You know, they worked hard,like us, monday through Friday,
but then they took a weekend offand then they came to their
(05:01):
offices on Monday.
In our case, we worked harduntil Friday and then we came
into their offices on Monday.
In our case, we worked harduntil Friday and then we came
into the Saturday morningmeeting.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
And when I was store manager, we would have a
conference call on Saturdays,point being, in our case, like
in a horse race, we got a headstart because of Saturday
morning meetings and wecommunicated that to the stores
(05:35):
and the stores had thosedirections executed by Monday,
while our competition came towork on a Monday.
Then they reviewed whathappened that week and then they
so we had, like in a horse race, we had an X number of head
start from our competition.
(05:59):
That's one of my biggestlessons learned.
Second thing was I can go onand on, but I won't give that.
We'll talk more about it.
But it was from entertainment.
Yeah, celebrities, we used tolook forward to who's going to
be there this Saturday, and myfavorite was Ed Nagy.
(06:21):
Yeah, I don't know, my favoritewas Ed Nagy.
Yeah, I don't know the storyabout Ed Nagy.
Is he wanted to see what isAndy Wilson wearing on a
Saturday morning?
Really, he was one of ourfashionistas.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
Yes, For sure In tank tops especially.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Yeah well, tank tops colored shirts and Ed Nagy used
to just make a ball with it.
I'm going to Andy Wilson's yardsale.
We had fun and we developedrelationships with Alice.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
I think we've got to back up a little bit to talk
about the room.
Actually, to be honest with you, the Saturday morning meeting
when I started in 1984 was inmaybe a 40 by 40 room in the
corner of warehouse number oneand to get to it you had to walk
(07:15):
from the offices through thewarehouse and it was a room that
was exposed.
Studs with paneling, noinsulation, so in wintertime
it's cold, in summertime it washot as all get out, but you had
(07:35):
to get there early.
One of the things aboutSaturday morning meeting was
it's supposed to start at 730,right, but when Sam was still
there and live, it started whenSam got there.
And if he got there at quartertill 7, right, but when Sam was
still there and live it startedwhen Sam got there, yeah, and if
he got there at quarter till 7,then that's when the meeting
started and you better beprepared.
You know, and I think when youreally think about the Saturday
(07:57):
morning meeting, one of thepurposes was to let everybody
know what the rest of thecompany was up to Exactly, and I
learned so much in the Saturdaymeeting.
A lot of people didn't want tocome, didn't want to work on
Saturday, especially people thatwe brought in from outside the
(08:18):
company.
But inside the company, Ilooked forward to it.
I will tell you I never went toone without a knot in my
stomach, because you know Samwould wander around and you
never know he might stop and siton the table right in front of
you and as stuff was going on,he'd turn around and he'd say so
(08:41):
what were your numbers lastweek?
And all the merchandising wentto that meeting with a cheat
sheet on their numbers, becauseif you got called on you
wouldn't remember.
So you had that written downsomewhere, right.
But it was always a unique,unique and, just like you said
(09:03):
about this podcast, there's noagenda.
There was never an agenda.
We knew things that were goingto happen, but we didn't really
have an agenda.
We celebrated heroes.
You remember all of you guysbringing people in from the
field department managers thathad done extraordinary things
(09:25):
and we celebrated those heroes.
We talked about our weaknessesand we addressed them.
One of the major things that wedid Always kept a knot in my
stomach was people like you andArthur, traveling the stores
during the week that on Saturday, found something that we
screwed up.
Right, john?
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
And I was frightened.
Arthur and.
I didn't do much of that, I'msure, but to be honest with you.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
I don't think we're the biggest offenders now.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
Yeah, no, you know, and I think that was a real
positive about both of you guysin that when you found the
problem, you called us.
Yeah, and we dealt with it and,proactively, by the Saturday
meeting, we had to fix and we'dstand up and talk about what
that fix was.
And the neat thing about thatwas it wasn't an opportunity to
(10:12):
slam dunk the buyer or theperson that made the mistake, it
was.
How can we translate this tothe rest of the company?
That's right, and how can weall learn from it?
And it always ended up being apositive Joe.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
What do you think Well, I just I remember the year
I came into the office, 1987,.
I was in the sales promotionarea at Dallas that you're
familiar with.
Yeah, In fact I may havereplaced you, I don't know.
Yeah, you came in behind me,Did you really?
One of the responsibilitiesthat I had was for the
auditorium number one.
(10:45):
Another responsibility was theVPI program.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
That was very you better explain what that is.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
The VPI program is the volume producing item
program and made famous by SamWalton and his moon pies.
And I just found out today thatDallas Dobbs was the buyer of
moon pies.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
And he's kind of we go out the way.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
That must have been a fun year for Dallas.
But in 1987, my first Saturdaymorning meeting, because I had
the VPI program, I also had tosolicit all the entries from the
store and we'd get thousands ofthem.
So I had two ladies that werejust great in the sales
promotion department that wouldgo through all of those.
(11:28):
It would give them a little bitof advice on you know what to
look for and they would land onmy desk on wednesday.
The vpis and I would go throughand select three winner and two
runner-ups for every region inthe company.
So there was a lot of entriesand then we would have a flyer
(11:49):
or a handout that we would haveon Saturday morning.
Well, knowing that it startedwhen Sam got there A and the
fact that the VPI program isvery dear to his heart, we had
to have those passed out in theauditorium prior to anything
going on.
And at that time I don't knowif you guys remember not that
they had a stage in theauditorium and they had tables
(12:11):
and the executives would be onthe stage.
So it was Sam and David Glassand Don Soderquist, all the
executives, and then a chair onthe end for me because I
presented the VPI program.
So talk about a knot in yourstomach the very first time you
do that, sitting next to Sam.
But man, was he ever great?
He loved to talk aboutmerchandise, so I would present
(12:33):
the VPI and he would elaborateon it.
Now, backing it up a day, Ialways had to communicate with
the buyers to let them know that, hey, one of their items has
been selected, and so thatsomebody like Dallas would be
prepared at the meeting to holdup the item and talk about it.
So that was my first Saturdaymeeting, was actually being up
(12:55):
on the stage and a lot of nerves.
But, man, what a greatopportunity for myself, because
it was exposure to other peoplein the company.
And a year later I got my firstbuying job, and most of that
due to the exposure that I gotfrom the VPI program in the
Saturday morning meeting.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
Yeah, my first Saturday morning meeting.
I remember the day, arthur, itwas July the 10th 1984.
And back then everybody thatcame into the office they
introduced at Saturday morningmeeting, right and Bill Smith,
you guys remember.
Sure, he was my boss at thetime.
(13:36):
He was the director of salespromotion, right Marketing, now
now.
But since rush, and he stood upand introduced me and and I'll
never forget it, had a visual ofit that I'll keep till the day
I die um, that front table inthe old meeting room, sam was
sitting on the front of it anddavid glass was up there and
(13:56):
Paul Carter and Jack Shoemakerand Don Sodaquist and several
others.
But Smith got up and heintroduced me and I was, you
know, just going to stand up andsay wave and say hey, I'm glad
to be here.
And after he introduced me, samlooked at it, was quiet for a
(14:20):
second.
And Sam looked at Bill and hesaid well, bill, we're on a
hiring freeze.
Can you tell me why Dallas ishere?
You know what Bill said.
He said well, sam, you know, Idon't think I could tell it as
good as Dallas can.
Dallas, why don't you tell themwhy you're here?
So I said something reallyunprofound, I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
But I made it for another 34 years, so it was okay
.
Oh my gosh, let me read a quotefrom Sam Walken.
I want these guys to keep going, but you know, sam, it's so
many quotes, but one of thequotes I want to read today.
I think it's very pertinent towhat we're talking about.
Sam says communicate everythingyou possibly can to your
partners.
You know his partners were allof us and all the people at
(15:12):
Walmart, the associates and thenanyone else that had business
with Walmart.
He said the more they know, themore they'll understand.
The more they understand, themore they'll care.
Once they care, there's nostopping them.
(15:32):
And you know we could say itwas no stopping us, because
that's exactly what we weredoing on saturday morning,
fridays also, but saturdaymornings, because we all grew up
in the source.
We worked on saturdays.
You know we did that, so goingto this was like a celebration
for us, wasn't it?
so I mean we got to hang out,you know, with the leaders of
(15:55):
walmart.
And here we were, young andgrowing up and we were just
drinking in all of thatknowledge and wisdom and
information, you know, and thenthere was no stopping Right.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
So go ahead Head start on a competition.
Yeah, to me, every Saturdaywhen we walked in, if you
remember, there was a sign thatsaid through these doors, walk
ordinary people doingextraordinary things.
(16:33):
Yeah, and every Saturday when Iwalked through there, it made
me feel, hey, I am an ordinaryperson and this company is
giving me an opportunity to doextraordinary thing.
And then when we went inthrough those doors because a
(16:56):
company, like a retail companyand many others, they are so
interdependent on each other theSaturday morning meeting, to
what you just read, both Sam'sand the culture of this company
was to communicate with eachother.
The Saturday morning meeting,to what you just read, both SAMS
and the culture of this companywas to communicate with each
other, build relations.
You don't know who we'd besitting next to.
I was in operation and Dallaswould be sitting next to me and
the guy from logistics would besitting next to me, or legal.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Or legal.
We said yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
So we built some intradepartmental relationships
that came in very handy for themove and the communication.
So the communication was then,and now is, a key core value of
(17:38):
Walmart.
So that was another big dealfor us.
And then, once again, as youmentioned, have fun.
There was a sign, if youremember Sam Walton in a straw
hat that said don't takeyourself so seriously, put on a
silly hat and sing a song.
And it was fun.
(17:59):
And, by the way, the otherlesson was you better be
prepared for your particulararea, right?
You have no clue what is goingto be asked of you and some of
us who were in the field.
We'll get there at 6 o'clock inthe morning and review all our
(18:20):
stores.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Because you have no clue 120, 30 stores we had.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
Sam will get there and he may ask a store like
Atoka, Oklahoma.
It's a little bitty store buthe could ask you a question if
that was your store.
Hey, what's going on in Atoka?
I saw their numbers and theylook good or bad, whatever it is
.
So us regionals had to beprepared, with all our 100
(18:47):
stores.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
And you know, most of the time, he already knows the
answer yes.
So you better not say somethingthat wasn't real, yes, and so
did the other leaders.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Like the glasses and the soda quiche, we were blessed
Right and in those meetings,like you said, us young pups, we
got the opportunity to buildrelationships with senior
leadership and so on.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
So be prepared, walk through those doors with
ordinary people like us doingextraordinary things,
communication, have fun, andthere's many other key learnings
from that, but that's the onesthat come to mind, and you know
(19:34):
our jobs, all of our jobs in theoffice.
I don't care who you were, evenif you were the janitor.
It was a stressful situation.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
And to your point of VPI, it was fun, right, but
there was an opposite award toVPI, called fish.
First in still here, I think Iwon it a few times I won it no
seriously.
And that was part of the fun.
Yeah, okay, you picked an item.
It a few times, I won it.
No seriously, and that was partof the fun.
Okay, you picked an item.
(20:02):
It's doing great and we'll havefun with it and you'll get a
plaque for that.
Whoever and the seniorleadership had to participate in
it.
David Glass was awarded a fishaward with an actual fish, a
stinking fish.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
We gave that at one of the yearly meetings.
Yeah, yearly meetings.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Part of being, you know, have fun.
And the message there of theVPI was you know, mr Glass
always used to say we are amerchandise-driven company.
Yeah, and from that generatedthe VPI thing that Sam came up
with just to keep us focused onmerchandising.
And particularly he was one ofthe best and, like you, igor,
(20:46):
item merchant.
Yeah, he loved itemmerchandising.
Yes, he did, oh, boy, and weused to have fun with those
items merchandising in theSaturday morning meetings.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
You know, I think and there were two merchants in the
room with us, but let's talkabout that but we were a
merchandise-driven company.
We are, Walmart is amerchandise-driven company.
You sit and you walk throughstores today even which is
awesome that philosophy is stillhere in Walmart, but that's a
big deal.
Yeah, and I don't know whatyour job was.
(21:19):
You had to have a merchant thathad an item, didn't you?
I mean, he required Sam,required everyone to be.
You know, and we'll talk aboutthe stores in a bit, but talk
about that from your perspective, both of you.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
Well, after the morning meeting, Senator, I was
in a merchant meeting and, as abuyer, if you weren't standing
up talking about your business,your boss thought you weren't
doing your job.
Yeah, and it was all arounditems.
Usually we'd get up and show anitem that we had found or a
department manager had sent aVPI in on.
That was doing really well andhow they did it.
(21:55):
And you know, like the moon pie, I tell you I had a store, call
me one Monday morning on moonpies and say I had something I
wanted to share with you.
I didn't have time to turn itin in the VPI but I ordered Back
in those days they wereordering with the Red Books
(22:15):
Remember Red Books, right whenyou had inventory one half of
the square and what you're goingto order on the other half, and
he put down to order 20 cases.
Well, the person at store levelthat keyed it, in which we
didn't have computers theneither, keyed in 200 cases and
it would take a while for astore to sell 200 cases of a
(22:39):
Moon Pie, but he decided thathe'd go to the front.
He built a display of Moon Pie,but he decided that he'd go to
the front.
He built a display of Moon Piesand he brought a microwave up
there with him too which was abrand new thing in the industry
microwaves were and he wouldheat a microwave for 10 seconds
Moon Pie microwave and then cutit up and just hand it out to
(23:00):
people as they came in and soldthrough that NCAP.
200 cases in one weekend aFriday, saturday and Monday,
because we were closed on Sundayand it was interesting.
I went and shared it with Samand you know what Sam's VPI was
(23:21):
the next year.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Yes, we do all know.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Well, that was part of it, but one of his real VPI's
was microwave oven, and that'swhen they started demonstrating
cooking in microwave ovens atthe front door.
That started the samplingprogram in the entire world.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
I didn't realize that's what I was talking about.
Yeah, it was really somethingyou know.
Someone always tells us, if youknow we would, if there was
some state, we would turn itinto something positive.
That was our mindset and that'sexactly what happened.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
You know people talk about making lemonade out of a
lemon.
Right, vpi program was thatalso, it was underdeveloped
items.
How can you find them?
And it was items and it was amistake.
But rather than crucifyingsomeone, it gave them an
opportunity.
(24:18):
How do you turn that lemon intoa lemonade?
So we learned a lot from VPI.
And then, of course, theunderdeveloped items and so on.
Right.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
That reminds me, arthur, of one of the things I
remember distinctly about you inthe Saturday morning media was
the Bucket of Time program.
Bucket of Time program.
The philosophy with that wasare there items out there that
you can add on to a purchase,that you could add on and put in
(24:50):
the cart?
And if I remember right, thatwas championed by Arthur Emanuel
himself and he would get up inthe meetings and talk about
Bucket of Time items and Buck,buck, buck, that's right, bucket
of time.
And that was another way thatyou got everybody that was at
that meeting together and ittook people that could take on
(25:12):
the responsibility.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
The background of that was at that particular time
I forgot the exact numbers, butwe had almost like 100 million
transactions a week, right.
And then we used to talk aboutcross merchandising If the sales
(25:35):
were down and it started offwith hey, if we can just get
those 100 million transactionsjust one more dollar, that's 100
million dollars a week, right.
And you do that throughcross-merchandising and this and
that, and that's so muchsupport from you guys and the
(25:55):
whole company up to thedepartment manager level.
So it was not that Buck, buckBuck didn't become famous or
successful because of us in thehome office.
It was that department managerat the store that made it happen
.
Right, that's right.
They came up with morecross-merchandising idea than we
could ever think of, right, andit got the whole company
(26:19):
excited about Buck at a time,and of all the things I did in
my career at Walmart, from beinga regional vice president,
senior VP, opening Argentina andBrazil people still remember me
.
Yeah, just Buck, buck, buck.
I remember.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Yeah, Let me read another quote and I want to hear
you guys think about thingsaround this, but the other quote
, really what I'm going to read.
He says the key to success isto get out into the store and
listen to what the associateshave to say.
(26:55):
It's terribly important foreveryone to get involved.
Our best ideas come from clerksand stock boys.
So what do you think of whenyou hear Sam?
Because he told us that everySaturday morning to get in the
stores, right, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
I got to tell you, andy, it's a philosophy that I
adhere to today.
I mean, I still get in thestores.
It drives my wife crazysometimes because what do you
have?
You're at the stores again, butthings change a lot and having
your finger on the pulse ofwhat's going on in the store, I
(27:36):
think, is critical to no matterwhat you do or how your career
evolves.
It's still where things happen.
That's where things happen, andI always look at what people
are putting in their carts andwondering why they made that
decision.
Even with Omnichannel andeverything else that you have
going on today, I still thinkthat's the most important thing
(27:59):
is that transaction that happensat the store and the people
that are out there every singleday.
They're the ones that know itbest.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
And the Saturday morning meetings became a big
vehicle to keep moving thatforward.
Because us, you know, we werein stores every week and we
would give an example of whatwas happening in a store and you
guys as merchants happening ina store, and you guys as
merchants were in the store andSaturday morning himself he
would bring up or recognize somedepartment manager or a store
(28:30):
manager or a clerk from thatweek when he was in the store
and other leaders, and everySaturday morning, if you go back
and look at it, there wasexamples given why that saying
that you just read was soimportant that our best ideas
come from the store and thoseideas were shared by us at every
(28:52):
Saturday morning meeting, oneor two here and there.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
Oh yeah, yeah, it was always.
I love to tour the store withSam.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Oh, yes, I want to talk about some of our store
tours for sam, so go ahead.
Speaker 4 (29:03):
that's great, but he uh he was just, uh, a bowl full
of questions and and you knowthat store managers would all be
nervous as a cat when sam wouldbe in the area, right, and it
was always a phone calls wereburning up.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
that's right.
Where?
Where is he?
We tracked him.
We didn't have a satellite, wetracked him.
That's right.
That's right.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
But when I was in marketing and I traveled with
him, he'd always give me hisyellow pad because he talked
with his hands and I'd take thenotes and I'm sure he did that
with everybody that traveledwith him.
But his interest was really inthe store associates and he'd
(29:47):
see, you know, a departmentmanager.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
We'd be walking down the Action Alley with the group
touring and he'd see adepartment manager an aisle over
back in the cross aisle sectionand he'd leave the group and
he'd go back, yeah, yeah, andfind that person just to talk
and you knew not to follow himwhen he left that group because
he needed some one-on-one,because he, you know, he went
(30:09):
back there to ask thatdepartment manager how that
store manager was doing, yeah,and and he wanted the real deal,
you know, and he got it, youknow, because they, they just,
they just trust this out, yeah,but to this point that's where
he went and learned, we all did.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
And I love touring competition with him.
That was always fun Because hewas always looking for something
they were doing better than usRight, dallas, I'm going to
underline that.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
The first tour I've done with Sam in competition, I
talked about what they weredoing poorly.
My mistake I was called out.
That's fairly not a nice way,but you know.
In other words, what I learnedwas he's not interested in that,
he wants what they're doinggreat.
So we can improve that, right,right.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
There's a very famous story about that Him and Bud
and another executive.
They were visiting stores andwent into a competition and this
other key executive at thattime who was pretty I mean
pretty instrumental in Walmart'ssuccess they came out, so he's
driving.
He said okay, bud, what'd yousee?
Bud, his brother right.
(31:20):
Yeah, bud his brother.
I asked the other executivewhat'd you see, bud his brother?
Right, yeah, bud his brother.
I asked the other executivewhat'd you see?
A dirty store, and you know theauto stocks.
And the executive turned to himand said what'd you see, mr
Sapp?
He said I found these pillowsthat they're selling two for a
dollar.
I'm a two for five dollars, orsomething like that.
(31:42):
He said that's a great item,so-and-so, you need to get with
the buyer and get us thosepillows To your exact point.
He always looked at and Ivisited.
I was a store manager inDyersburg, tennessee, and you
know, get a call, pick me up atthe airport.
Huh, yeah, went to the callpick me up at the airport.
(32:03):
Huh yeah, Went to the airport,picked him up.
First thing he does is let's goto Kmart.
Yeah, we went to Kmart.
Usually did that before you hitthe mall or something.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Oh, yeah, always.
Speaker 4 (32:16):
He had already counted the cars.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
Cars.
That's right, and I'll bedamned he found out more about
Kmart from a little olddepartment manager there,
because he had that abilityabout him, like being a
grandfather kind of an ability.
He would find out more aboutthe competition, what's selling
good, what's selling bad, thisand that, and then we went to my
(32:42):
store.
So competition piece and welearned all that.
And then we went to my store,so competition piece and we
learned all that.
So he practiced everything hepreached.
So did our other leaders.
You know the glasses.
Speaker 4 (32:52):
He had such respect in the industry.
Everybody knew him too.
I went and toured a Targetstore with him once, and we did
that before we hit the Walmart,and as soon as he hit the front
door, people knew him.
The store manager for theTarget store ended up within two
or three minutes wanted apicture with him yeah, and
(33:13):
wanted a picture with him, andSam was, so he was just one of
those people that you justtrusted too, and, of course, sam
, before we left the store hewanted to hire the manager right
because he's running a goodTarget store.
But Target had just implementeda new receiving program I can't
remember the name of it, but itwas a number and Sam had been
(33:35):
talking to the store manager.
He said, hey, I understand youguys have this new receiving
program.
Can you tell me about it?
And the guy says, sure, let mejust take you in the back.
Oh, we'll sit through it.
And he walked us through thewhole thing, I mean, and Sam
came back with a plan forWalmart how to take what they
were doing and improve on it.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
And connecting it to Saturday morning meetings.
You know, we were expected tobe in competition and we were
expected to give some kind of anupdate on some kind of not
every Saturday, but a bitdifferent person.
It'd be a merchant.
He would ask you you know, haveyou been to so-and-so
competition?
Did you notice this and that?
(34:15):
And all that became part ofthis Saturday morning meeting.
It was not only talking aboutWalmarts, but it was also
talking about meeting, right, itwas not only talking about
Walmart, but it was also talkingabout competition, right, and
in every area, not justoperators or merchants, and it
was the construction people.
Somebody's building a betterstore than us or had this idea
(34:37):
about this in their area, andall that.
So we'll talk about competitionin those and that was
communicated to everyone.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Right, hey, I remember him saying in the
Saturday morning meeting hewould say who's been in the
stores this week, who's been out?
Right, exactly.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
Other than the operators.
If you're a, volunteer.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
You might call on you .
Where did you go this week?
What did you see?
Speaker 4 (34:59):
So you had to be ready.
Well, so be ready.
As merchants, we traveled oncea month with a bridge for four
days.
Go out on Monday morning,sometimes Sunday evening, come
back on Thursday and then you'dget prepared for the Friday and
Saturday morning mentions.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
You were expected to, after you had that time, eat
what you cook.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Talk about that.
What is for our viewers?
Eat what you cook.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Eat what you cook, and they still do it today, by
the way.
I still see mentions of eat whatyou cook, but basically it was
as a buyer.
You would go work in the storefor a couple of days and
normally I would go and set amodular, like if I just had a
modular land in the stores.
We'd go out and set it.
Sometimes it'd be an overnightthing, where you'd bring in your
(35:44):
supplier base and all meetthere and basically you would
learn from the eyes of the storewhat your product is and how
they perceive it.
And, my goodness, could youlearn a lot about how they
execute your items and what youcan take back to do better as
you were planning for theupcoming seasons or whatever,
(36:06):
and you know what he and I therewere a lot of fun too.
We had a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
I think what you just said, too, was highlighted, is
that you would take the supplierwith you, right?
So you know, from thestandpoint of suppliers, they
were bought in just as much,almost as much as you were to
the success of Walmart, becausethey were your partners.
And, of course, now we havethis opportunity to live in
(36:33):
northwest Arkansas, wherethere's over 3,000 supplier
offices in this area, and I hadTom Luccio recently he talked
about parton campbell, was oneof the first to go here, you
know, and but that's the thingit was.
It was all such a team, wasn'tit even into outside the walmart
(36:55):
if you didn't work for walmart,but, like the merchant, like
they were part of your team,right, sam used to talk about
that as a win-win relationship.
Speaker 4 (37:04):
Right, there's no buildings out there that had
Procter Gamble on the front andthere's no manufacturing
facilities that Walmart owned.
So for both of us to besuccessful, we both had to win.
Both of us had to make money.
I can tell you, when Samrenegotiated the price on moon
pies, we went from 14.5 cents to12.5 cents apiece, and he was
(37:30):
tenacious on it.
But you know, once the companycame back and said, okay, we'll
give you 2 cents off, and Samthanked him for it.
And then he said now can youmake money at 12 and a half
cents?
And the supplier I mean he wasspeechless for a minute and he
said afterwards, after Sam leftthe meeting, he said to me he
(37:53):
said you know, I've never had aretailer care if I made any
money or not, but it had to be awin-win situation or neither
one of us would have done it.
That's a great story.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
Yeah, and he had a special relationship with
suppliers that he preached to us.
It was only him.
David Glass did that Shoemaker,and we were taught or preached
to at Saturday morning meetingsbe firm but be fair.
(38:25):
And as I think about what'sgoing on right now with these
terrorists and all that, we doneed to remember be firm but be
fair.
And that was our reputation,and every once in a while John,
some knucklehead, will kind ofgo his own way.
But be firm but be fair, Becausewe are in a business to buy and
(38:52):
sell.
Selling happens in a store, soyou got to have clean stores,
you got to have this.
That Buying happens with asupplier.
Like you said, we were in nomanufacturing.
That principle still applies.
Right, Buy, sell, and thenthere's a lot of dots in between
.
Right, they have to play theirrole in this.
(39:14):
But be firm but be fair At ranktimes our buyers and everyone
else that deals with the outsidefirm, just remember be firm but
be fair.
(39:35):
Like you said, he asked thisMoonpile guy can you make money
at 12.5 cents?
Because he was interested intheir well-being too.
It wasn't to break them or tospy for brand coverage, and that
has just kind of become part ofthe culture.
Yeah, and for a company oursize to believe in.
All that thing happened becauseof Saturday morning meeting,
(39:58):
Right, Because those kind ofmessages that's where we shared
it got to everyone, Whether youwere in construction, legal,
this, this, this Right.
Speaker 4 (40:12):
So Should I tell the story about the relative to
direction coming on Saturdaymeeting about the signed shop,
you know.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
I think you should, and then we're going to begin to
wrap.
So you, gentlemen, be thinkingabout that and please do,
because that's a great story.
Yeah, it's a great culturestory.
Speaker 4 (40:29):
Well, and Arthur mentioned it, you know, after
the Saturday meeting we all cameout of that meeting with a
to-do list, basically, andeverybody that was in that
meeting, if they traveled thestores, they took that list with
them and before I came into theoffice I was in store 115.
Do you know where that is?
West?
Speaker 1 (40:48):
Point Mississippi.
Yeah, yeah, I was just down theroad, right yeah, amory or
Aberdeen, amory and Aberdeen.
Speaker 3 (40:55):
Yeah, I thought so yeah, I was in both of those
stores and I was in West Helena,arkansas, yeah, arkansas, yeah,
yeah man, I think that's true.
Speaker 4 (41:01):
I'm in the.
Speaker 3 (41:01):
South John.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
I was in.
Speaker 4 (41:04):
Stillwater.
But anyway, we were in an oldstore store 115, and 41,000
square feet, but that was theaverage size of the store back
then.
That's a neighborhood markettoday, right, but we did.
Those stores built this company, they did.
But we had an old building andan old sign and the sign was a
(41:26):
wooden sign and it was lightedwith spotlights and we were
getting an updated sign.
And the Mitchell building iswhere we used to make all of our
signs and they'd throw them onthe back of the truck and then
they'd drive them to the storeand we had a person that would
put them up.
So we knew that we were gettinga new sign.
So Monday morning I'm openingthe store it's 6 o'clock in the
(41:49):
morning and I hear this knock onthe front door Bang, bang, bang
bang.
And I look out because it wasthe cash offices back then.
We're at the front, get thestore open.
And I looked out and there'sthis guy in blue jeans and a
flannel shirt and a ball cap.
So I went down there and said,hey, we're not open yet and he
(42:10):
goes hey, I'm so-and-so from thesign shop.
I've got your new sign I've gotto put up.
I said great, oh great We'vebeen expecting you Opened the
door up and started to tell himhe could do where he could plug
his drill up and all that stuffand he goes.
Well, before we do that, I'dlike to get a cup of coffee and
(42:31):
I'd like to walk your store.
And I said, well, okay, well,we had all gotten that list from
the Saturday meetings to Mondaymorning and he had those notes
and he walked the store lookingfor this feature and for this
modular and walked the back room, which was really important
(42:54):
back then because it was door tofloor, right, you didn't keep
anything in the back room thatyou couldn't, but that was part
of the beauty in thecommunication coming out of the
Saturday morning.
It was that everybody was onthe same page.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
You know, dallas.
To sum up our conversation, youknow the Saturday morning
meeting.
It was a tool for communication, it was a tool for motivation,
and it was a tool for motivationand it was a tool for learning.
But what you just described isa tool for reinforcing the
culture.
Yeah, because there a guy froma sign shop had the notes from
(43:34):
Saturday morning meeting.
So Sam used to say if we canget this message from here to
the person pushing the shoppingcarts in, then we're successful.
We've done it.
We've got the message all theway down to the people.
Now the bottom may be someonepulling the carts in, but we
(43:55):
didn't have those carts.
We do a lot less business, sothat person is still very, very
important.
So I'm not minimizing theimportance of that person, but
that's what Sam's goal was,wasn't it?
It's to get the message all theway.
And we did it.
We got it done and everyone gotit done in those days.
Speaker 3 (44:15):
And it still can be done and must be done.
You see John Furner out in thestores regularly.
You see Doug McMillan out inthe stores regularly.
You see Doug McMillan out inthe stores.
But there needs to be more thanjust John Furner and Doug
McMillan.
Right, you're right.
And every division and so on,and the communication piece.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
Right, perfect, Dallas.
Any closing comments.
Speaker 4 (44:41):
No, I appreciate the opportunity to get together with
you guys.
It's always good to see oldfriends.
We worked really hard in thosedays.
We came in at 6 in the morning.
When I took the job they toldme I had to be here at 7.30.
If I wasn't in my chair at 6o'clock I was late and we never
(45:02):
left until after 6.
That's right, and you didn'tnever left until after 6.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
That's right.
And you didn't get a goodparking spot.
That's right.
That's the problem.
Speaker 4 (45:08):
And when I first got here we parked in the ditch in
front of the office.
When it rained you had to gomove your vehicle or something
Covered up in water.
Speaker 1 (45:17):
John, any final thoughts?
Speaker 2 (45:23):
Yeah, just you know we've talked a lot about the
business part of this and alittle bit about the fun, but I
remember specifically somereally, really fun things that
took place in the Saturdaymorning meeting, and one of them
was on a Saturday morning theRazorback football team was
playing South Carolina andFayetteville.
It took probably a one o'clockkickoff.
Well, like Arthur mentioned,everybody that was anywhere near
Bentonville wanted to go to theSaturday morning meeting and in
(45:46):
this particular case it was thehead coach of South Carolina,
sparky Woods, shows up, and ofcourse you know Sam, oh, get up
and say something.
And then Sam said OK, well, weneed to call the hog.
Yeah, always we need somebody tolead it.
Sparky, why don't you lead it?
Anybody that ever worked withSam could not refuse anything
(46:08):
that he asked you to do.
So Sparky Wood said okay,everybody, nobody says any word
about this, it doesn't get out.
He led everybody in calling thehogs.
I thought that was testament tothe influence of Sam Walton.
And the other one that Idistinctly remember was one
Saturday morning when Sam saidthings are a little, we need to
(46:31):
perk things up a little bit.
Why don't we have a talent show?
And he points somebody youorganize a talent show and for
the next, probably 10 Saturdaymorning meetings, we had Walmart
associates that had talent,yeah, some that didn't, some
that didn't.
Speaker 1 (46:48):
I remember some that did.
Speaker 4 (46:50):
That was one of those .
Speaker 2 (46:52):
They would sing or dance or do skits or whatever,
and it just lightened everythingup.
Speaker 3 (46:57):
One of the songs we used to sing oh Lord, it's Hard
to Be.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
Oh Lord, it's Hard to Be.
Speaker 3 (47:03):
Sam will lead it.
He'll sing.
Speaker 2 (47:05):
I also recall the time that David, sam and Don saw
this on Easter, put the Easterhats on and sang Easter Parade.
I remember that Everybody itwas stressful.
Yes, when you showed up likeDallas said you didn't want to
miss, you would say, yeah, thisis my Saturday off, but gosh,
what's going on.
Then I miss it.
(47:25):
You would worry about what youmissed and then you'd find out
Competitive, fun-spirited.
Speaker 3 (47:29):
You know him doing the hula at Wall Street, the
chief financial officer riding awhite horse, downtown
Bentonville with a pink wig Allour Saturday meetings were for
me with a pink wig.
All our Saturday meetings wereFor me, andy, to close it off,
and I recommend all my friends,your friends and our friends
(47:51):
that are listening to thispodcast to read this book.
Go buy it.
Yeah, it's called Build to Last, and this book compared
companies in that century, theones who have been successful
and the ones who failed.
And the companies that held onto their core values succeeded
(48:16):
and this was they.
Compared Walmart to one of thecompetitors.
I won't name them, but this iswhat was written about Walmart,
the reason for their success andtheir core values.
Walmart, we exist to providevalue to our customers, to make
their lives better.
(48:36):
We are lower prices and greaterselection.
All else is secondary.
Werner and Doug are stillpracticing that's right.
And and Doug are stillpracticing that.
That's right.
And the company is stillpracticing that.
Swim upstream Buck.
Conventional wisdom that wasSam here, 8% net profit on the
(48:56):
bottom line that was swimmingupstream when he did the whole
thing, and on and on it goesStill applies.
Be in partnership withemployees what you read Right
Still applies today.
Work with passion, commitmentand enthusiasm Still applies,
(49:17):
and our people are doing that.
Run lean expenses Expensesstill matter.
And pursue ever higher goalsstill matters.
And then some companies such asJohnson, johnson and Walmart,
made their customers central totheir ideology.
(49:41):
Still, if you listen to themessages from the key leaders,
whether it be Sam's or Doug orJohn, still matters.
So that's the key to thesuccess of Walmart.
That culture was created throughthat Saturday morning meeting.
All these things werecommunicated to us in those days
(50:03):
in Saturday morning meetings.
Today, we things werecommunicated to us in those days
in Saturday morning meetings.
Today we have different meansof communicating, but these core
values still apply.
Still apply.
I just drove.
I had a meeting today.
I just drove through the newcampus, the building I was in.
You know the name of thebuilding Old Roy.
(50:25):
Yeah, the culture is still.
The campus is a history lesson.
Speaker 2 (50:30):
History in itself.
Speaker 1 (50:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (50:32):
It is, but thank you so much.
Yes, just like John and Dallas,I feel honored to be part of
this podcast and willing to helpanyone that I can help to
continue to tell the Walmartstory, because Walmart story,
(50:52):
walmart success, is a successfor a customer.
Walmart success with employeesis or with the suppliers is
providing jobs to the millionsof people around the world in
the communities they didn't havea job, don't know what they
will do.
So when Sam said, hey, look outworld, here we'll come, we'll
(51:15):
improve the standard of livingaround the world, the present
day company is still practicingthat.
My only request is that we keeppreaching, be firm, but be fair
, especially during these tryingtimes.
Right, now.
Speaker 1 (51:33):
Well said, arthur, arthur.
Thank you Dallas, thank youJohn.
Thank you, it's been a pleasureto all of our viewers and
guests.
Thank you so much.
This has been a wonderful,wonderful time together.
We're great friends and I hopeyou've really enjoyed our
podcast.
Let's hear from you when wepost this podcast.
You can go to our website.
It'sdoingbusinessinbettenvillecom.
(51:53):
You can check it out there.
There will be, of course, ourpodcast will be there, along
with some bios and informationon our guests today, so you can
reach out to them if you wouldlike, and there'll be
information there.
Again, to all of our viewersand watchers.
Again, thank you for makingthis happen.
We really appreciate you.
Gentlemen.
What a day.
Speaker 3 (52:14):
Thank you very much.
Goodbye everyone, thank you,bye-bye.
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