Stories on Veterans

• This article provides a story on Elise Hackstall who was transitioning off active duty while married to a fellow soldier.
• After completing the military on boarding program, she started working for Walmart in 2008.
• Over the next decade, she served in managerial roles in stores throughout Georgia and Tennessee. Today, she's the Developmental Market Manager in Memphis.
• The article states, "Walmart has offered Elise more than just support" and "her career here has been a perfect match for the skills she honed in the army — like decisiveness and leadership."
• The full article can be found here.

• Army veteran Charles Collier relied on social security disability checks for income and could not afford to buy an air conditioner.
• After hearing Collier's story, Walmart department manager Donald Howard helped Collier to buy the air conditioning unit he needed. Howard asked Collier to pay what he could and covered the rest of the bill.
• The full article can be found here.

•  Brittany Walton, an employee of Walmart, was recognized for helping a blind customer.
• The blind man was identified as veteran Mr. Roy, who was new in town and had come into Walmart to buy a mug.
• Brittany's noble gesture was celebrated on social media and Walmart CEO Doug McMillon also shared the post.
• The full article can be found here.

•  James, a 63-year-old Vietnam veteran looking for a job at Walmart was extremely disappointed by the way his recruitment process was handled. The process ended in him not getting the job.
• According to James, he was asked to meet maintenance supervisor, Duke, for the job interview but was never interviewed by this person and was only given a 10-minute interview.
• The full article can be found here.

• According to Wally Lynn, who is a veteran and former Walmart employee, it was disappointing to see Walmart not offering proper discounts to service members and veterans who have sacrificed so much for the country.
• Wally believes that Walmart has a long way to go on showing commitment to service members and veterans and that a discount is just the first step.
• The full article can be found here.

Stories on Environmentalism/Sustainability

• Walmart recently redesigned its employee vests. The new vests are woven from fabric made of recycled bottles.
• Apart from being made in an environmentally sustainable way, the vests come in various colors such as green, blue, hot pink and orange.
• The full article can be found here.

•  Lee Scott ran Walmart from 2000 to 2009 and was credited as having started the discussion around environmental sustainability in the company.
• His efforts resulted in the implementation of Walmart’s sustainability program, where executives from the CEO on down traversed the globe to better understand the company's impact on the environment.
• Several company leaders made trips to parched cotton fields, landfills covered with Walmart shopping bags and melting Arctic glaciers, all with the aim of gaining a deeper understanding of sustainability and engaging with environmental groups, journalists and critics.
• The full article can be found here.

• The executive Vice President in charge of all the grocery operations at Walmart, Jack Sinclair, oversaw the deal that brought Wild Oats organic fare to Walmart.
• According to Sinclair, since Walmart sold more food than anybody else, it was imperative to do it in a sustainable way.
• The full article can be found here.

• Andy Ruben, the company’s Vice President of Corporate Strategy, was one of the first to start discussions about "sustainability," rather than the more prevalent notion of "corporate responsibility."
• Ruben, along with Scott Ellison of Blu Skye Sustainability Consulting, convened a group of executives for a two-day offsite meeting at the Shewmaker Center for Workforce Development.
• Those meetings later became the basis for what were later called Sustainable Value Networks at Walmart.
• The full article can be found here.

• Employees of the Walmart on Sanguinetti Road In Sonora, CA volunteered alongside a group of homeless residents to reduce fire danger in the area.
• While talking about this initiative, Forrest Armstrong, Manager of the auto care center at the Walmart store said, "Anything we could do to help the community and have a better environment, because we don’t want any fires out here."
• The full article can be found here.

Research Strategy:

WALMART EMPLOYEES: HOMELESSNESS STORIES

• In June 2019, two Walmart employees found a homeless woman living in her car in Tilden Township.
• The employees provided assistance by giving her food and calling the local authorities and shelters to help her.
• The woman was given a place to sleep by a police officer and the Helping Harvest shelter, who answered to the Walmart employees' call.

• In July 2019, a group of more than 100 Walmart employees, motivated by Walmart's #SparkKindness challenge, volunteered to clean and work at the Hope Center homeless shelter in Fayetteville.
• The employees are members of the Ramsey Street store and the Hope Mills Walmart.
• The volunteers painted and cleaned the shelter, removed debris, planted flowers, landscaped the exterior yard, removed trash, and brought donations of hygiene supplies, cleaning products and food.

• A Racine County Walmart employee was charged for taking over $4,000 in cash and products from Walmart in March 2019.
• The employee, Patrick Green, told the police the reason he did it was because he was homeless and had been living in Walmart's parking lot for several months.
• The officers confirmed he had been living in his car in Walmart's lot and taking money to pay his bills.

WALMART EMPLOYEES: AGRICULTURE STORIES

• In September 2018, Judith McKenna, an employee from Walmart and president of Walmart in India, visited the farms in the Kasimpur village and met with local farmers to understand their agricultural needs.
• After her visit, she announced a donation of US$25 million through Walmart's foundation to support the local farmers.
• Through this project, she wants to help farmers grow and create new business opportunities in agriculture.

•  In 2018, Walmart announced that they would be leading a project to help farmers in developing countries by teaching them agricultural skills and business skills, so they can become Walmart suppliers.
• One of Walmart's employees in India, Shobha Jagathpal, presented the volunteer work Walmart India employees are doing to teach farmers through the #SparkKindness and the #WalmartAssociateChallenge hashtags on Twitter.
• On her post, she shared the pictures of the employees and volunteers who participated in the 13th hands-on session, where they were taught the principles of natural farming at AuroVeda.

•  Shannon Williams is a Walmart employee who was featured in the corporate news for her volunteering work and inspiration to others.
• She volunteers at the Cobblestone project, a community farm that grows fruits and vegetables for people in need.
• Since Walmart donates to non-profit organizations whenever an employee does volunteer work, they have donated $13 million thanks to Shannon's work.

WALMART EMPLOYEES: EDUCATION STORIES

•  Janine Johnson, a Walmart employee that works as a Walmart Academy Facilitator, wanted to get a bachelor's degree but was unable to afford it.
• Through Walmart's Live Better U program, she was able to enroll a for a fee of $1 per day.
• Thanks to Walmart, Janine is now the first person in her family to earn a college degree and has motivated her sister, Porscha Mitchell, another Walmart employee, to go back to school.

•  Dustin Clemons, a Walmart employee, took advantage of Walmart's college education program to provide a better future to his wife and son.
• He is currently working on getting his associate's degree through the online college education of Live Better U.
• He plans on getting his bachelor's degree after and become an assistant manager at Walmart.

• Around 150 Walmart employees from the Hurricane Bloomington, and Washington City stores participated in a community project that targets schools with limited resources.
• The volunteers went to the Legacy Elementary School and LaVerkin Elementary School, and talked to every kid, washed their feet and gave them new socks and shoes.
• The Samaritan Feet community project is designed to help kids and give them shoes to benefit their health and their education.

• Over 100 Walmart employees from Georgia volunteered to participate in the Back-to-School Brigade program with Tutor.com and Military Kids.
• The program consisted of collecting donations of school supplies at the Walmart stores.
• Then, the volunteers helped to sort these supplies, moving donation boxes, bringing empty boxes, and preparing the school materials to be distributed among the military families of the country, to help with the education of military students.

RESEARCH STRATEGY: