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Wal-Mart is dressing up for the Bay Area (In Drag?)
San Francisco Business Times via Biz Journals ^ | June 23, 2006 | Sarah Duxbury

Posted on 06/29/2006 1:12:47 AM PDT by Nextrush

The $312 billion Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer, which has been decried for driving mon and pop under while promoting a new class of working poor, is on a charm offensive........

From a $60,000 sponsorship of a San Francisco, lesbian, gay bisexual and transgendered employee advocacy non-profit to store redesigns and tailored merchandising Wal-Mart seems to be trying to recreate itself in Target's image......

Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott said at a shareholders meeting earlier this month that the company is undergoing a five-pillared transformation that includes broadening Wal-Mart's appeal to different customers.....

The company plans to focus on five store formats based on demographics and location suburban affluent, urban multicultural, Hispanic, baby boomers and rural markets...........

In April.....Wal-Mart announced "Acres for America," its committment to preserve one acre of wildlife habitat for every acre it develops.......

Wal-Mart's sponsorship of the Out and Equal summit can be seen as an effort to woo homosexual shoppers much as it has begun courting African American, Hispanic and female shoppers..............

According to statistics from Harris Interactive and marketing firm Witeck-Combs, LGBT purchasing power will grow from $610 billion in 2005 to $641 billion this year.

Wal-Mart is a $60,000 plenary sponsor of September's Out & Equal Summit in Chicago. The company signed on to support the workplace advocacy group just two years after Ken Pearson, a Wal-Mart executive, attended his first summit and reported his findings to Bentonville.....

Pearson said Wal-Mart "has been making great strides in moving the needle in LGBT workplace equality."

Out & Equal executive director Selisse Berry sold Wal-Mart executives on Out & Equal in two day meeting on LGBT issues in Bentonville last December.

"What struck me about that was that the culture at Wal-Mart is changing," Berry said. "They were eager to learn and kind of catch up.".....................

(Excerpt) Read more at bizjournals.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Extended News; US: California
KEYWORDS: diversity; enviromentalism; gay; gayagenda; gayandlesbian; homosexual; homosexualagenda; immigration; multiculturalism; race; sanfrancisco; walmart
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It gives us a picture of what Wal-Mart is doing in lockstep with other major companies. Diversity is in with training internally and an effort to reach out. This includes Wal-Mart support of La Raza, the Congressional Black Caucus, LULAC and as mentioned in this article, a gay and lesbian group (LGBT).

Environmental issues are also being stressed by the company.

Word is already out that gun sales will be stopping at one thousand of the company's stores.

My comments here about the situation including the organizations I mentioned above are based on internal company information being provided to associates. No kidding.

If you can't beat your critics, join em?

1 posted on 06/29/2006 1:12:52 AM PDT by Nextrush
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To: Nextrush
....which has been decried for driving mon and pop under while promoting a new class of working poor, is on a charm offensive........

First, this is bullsh*t. Mom and Pop are doing just fine, along with a host of other small shops that share a parking lot with virtually every Wal-Mart in the nation (such as the Dollar Store).

They'll get what they deserve for sleeping with the devil. It's a damned shame.
2 posted on 06/29/2006 1:20:09 AM PDT by Jaysun (I'm from a little place called Smithereens. It ain't pretty out here.)
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To: Nextrush

LOL I don't really think Wal-Mart has a problem getting Hispanic customers into their stores...


3 posted on 06/29/2006 1:20:43 AM PDT by sakka
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To: Jaysun
They'll get what they deserve for sleeping with the devil. It's a damned shame.

I disagree. Wal-Mart will do just fine. Actually, this makes good business sense.

Diversity and adaptability is the wave of the future. (For any business, not just Wal-Mart)

4 posted on 06/29/2006 2:04:19 AM PDT by RadioAstronomer (Senior member of Darwin Central)
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To: RadioAstronomer
Diversity and adaptability is the wave of the future. (For any business, not just Wal-Mart)

I agree, I don't have a problem with whoever they want to sponsor. But why doesn't that 'diversity' include gun sales at some Wal-Mart stores? Surely, they are not giving in to the anti-gun lobby?
5 posted on 06/29/2006 2:51:49 AM PDT by AntiGovernment (A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away.)
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To: AntiGovernment

Honestly, I don't know. Fortunately, there are many gun stores out there.


6 posted on 06/29/2006 3:04:17 AM PDT by RadioAstronomer (Senior member of Darwin Central)
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To: Nextrush

For a moment I thought Home Depot was pandering to the gay community: http://www.the-homo-depot.com/catalog/ceramictiles.htm

(Warning - don't go to the home page)


7 posted on 06/29/2006 3:22:17 AM PDT by NewHampshireDuo
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To: sakka

If we secure our borders and send back the illegals they will have to expand their customer base - They're only looking to the future.


8 posted on 06/29/2006 4:10:46 AM PDT by smartymarty (If you know why you believe what you believe leadership is inevitable.)
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To: RadioAstronomer
I think that you may have missed the irony in Jay's retort. And your 'plenty of gun stores' is simply a POV error. I am a bit surprised but then 'net handles are like CB handles, merely epithets. The thing is not its name. Wal Mart can't go to hell fast enough. We have one family (literally mom & pop) that operates the grocery (102+ years now) and the mercantile/hardware store.
9 posted on 06/29/2006 4:11:21 AM PDT by dhuffman@awod.com (The conspiracy of ignorance masquerades as common sense.)
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To: dhuffman@awod.com

Why is everyone upset with this? Maybe I am missing something but isn't this in San Francisco? If a store in SF wants to carter to there clients which so happens to be the gays, why not? Now if they are going nation wide then I would have a problem. It must be something I missed because you guys normally don't get made about this with SF just make fun of them. lol.


10 posted on 06/29/2006 4:16:01 AM PDT by napscoordinator
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To: RadioAstronomer
"Diversity and adaptability is the wave of the future."

So is a "one world government", but I sure as hell won't accept,support or be a cheerleader for it.
11 posted on 06/29/2006 4:18:07 AM PDT by loboinok (Gun control is, hitting what you aim at!)
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To: NewHampshireDuo

For a moment I thought Home Depot was pandering to the gay community


In my area half the people who work at Home Depot and many of the clientel are homosexual or lesbian. They DO like to decorate!

Some say that it is a homo cruise spot.


12 posted on 06/29/2006 4:20:07 AM PDT by Chickensoup (The water in the pot is getting warmer, froggies.The water in the pot is getting warmer, froggies.)
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To: sakka
LOL I don't really think Wal-Mart has a problem getting Hispanic customers into their stores...

Yep, Sunday is what I call " UN day " at the local Wal Mart. They show up by the van load.

13 posted on 06/29/2006 4:21:37 AM PDT by csvset ("It was like the hand of G_d slapping down and smashing everything." ~ JDAM strikes Taliban)
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To: RadioAstronomer

Diversity and adaptability is the wave of the future. (For any business, not just Wal-Mart)




Yeah, except that Wal-Mart has built its reputation and customer base on "lotsa cheap Chinese stuff dirt cheap" to fly-over States. Can they cater to a market that regularly spends half an hour discussing tannics in wine or Cynthia Rowley ?


14 posted on 06/29/2006 4:28:43 AM PDT by durasell (!)
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To: Jaysun

Sam Walton is surely spinning in his grave. All of the principles he stood for - American Made, God and Country, the American Way - are out the window.
The current bunch of administrative pencil pushers in control of Wally World are in league with Chicom gangsters, slave traders, and, now, are teaming up with the anti-culture crowd of perverts and racist miscreants.
There will be a price to pay.


15 posted on 06/29/2006 6:07:53 AM PDT by Louis Foxwell (Here come I, gravitas in tow.)
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To: napscoordinator

Which 'this?' WalMart or 'in drag'? I think that WalMart should/does pander to the demotic middle. Just not use corrupt dollars to buy into my neighborhood/market.

Here we're all each other's Golden Egg but we know it. WalMart is from-off Island. WalMart is foreign. WalMart is corporate bully. WalMart panders to the demotic masses, the d'masses.

Democracy is the rule of fools by fools but we don't need to be any bigger fools than neccessary. Tagline...


16 posted on 06/29/2006 6:18:01 AM PDT by dhuffman@awod.com (The conspiracy of ignorance masquerades as common sense.)
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To: Nextrush

I'm only surprised they didn't already have a "gay" store in SF. If I was going to do business there, I'd be crazy not to pander. Thing is, I will never, ever do business there.


17 posted on 06/29/2006 6:34:21 AM PDT by AmericanChef
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To: dhuffman@awod.com

Pardon?

Not sure what you are trying to tell me.

BTW, I was honest in my reply "I do not know".

Also, what does this comment about "net handles" mean?


18 posted on 06/29/2006 8:43:21 AM PDT by RadioAstronomer (Senior member of Darwin Central)
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To: RadioAstronomer
Diversity and adaptability is the wave of the future. (For any business, not just Wal-Mart)

The article entails promotion of homosexual activity and falsely conflates it with innate characteristics such as race. As such, your statement regarding "diversity" is nothing but parroting bizarre leftist propaganda... How is promoting an unhealthy disordered sexual activity good for anything?

19 posted on 06/29/2006 10:46:48 AM PDT by DBeers (†)
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To: Nextrush; AFA-Michigan; Abathar; AggieCPA; Agitate; AliVeritas; AllTheRage; ...
Homosexual Agenda Ping!

If you oppose the homosexualization of society
-add yourself to the ping list!

To be included in or removed from the
HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA PING LIST,
please FReepMail either DBeers or DirtyHarryY2k.

Free Republic homosexual agenda keyword search
[ Add keyword = homosexualagenda to flag FR articles to this ping list ]

20 posted on 06/29/2006 10:47:19 AM PDT by DBeers (†)
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