Wal-Mart Buyers Up All Night In SARS Strategy

Forbes ^ | 4-28-03

[Unwavering Conservative]

Wal-Mart Buyers Up All Night In SARS Strategy

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Middle-of-the-night videoconferences are now the norm as Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s Arkansas-based merchandise buyers work around SARS travel restrictions to purchase goods from China.

At an analyst meeting in New York on Monday, Wal-Mart's treasurer, Jay Fitzsimmons, said the illness had no "significant" impact on its Asian stores or supplies, but it was forcing employees of the world's biggest retailer to get a bit more creative.

"Buyers have to be up in the middle of the night for videoconferencing" with China-based suppliers, Fitzsimmons said. He added that suppliers were shipping samples to the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company because buyers were unable to check out some of the made-in-China merchandise in person.

The highly contagious Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome has infected some 5,510 people in nearly 30 countries, and has killed at least 331 people since the pneumonia-like illness broke out in China's Guangdong province late last year.

Wal-Mart's Chinese global sourcing office is in Guangdong province. Fitzsimmons said employees there were divided into three groups, who were working out of different locations in hopes of containing any possible SARS outbreak. They keep in touch by telephone, but have no face-to-face contact.

The retailer earlier this month temporarily banned employee travel to Asia due to SARS worries. Wal-Mart has 26 stores in China and 15 in Korea, and buys from many suppliers throughout the region for sale in its stores all over the world.

Employees returning to the United States from China, Singapore or Vietnam were asked to stay home for 10 days for an "observation period". Suppliers coming from the region have been asked not to come to Wal-Mart's offices.

Copyright 2003, Reuters News Service

[Unwavering Conservative]

Wal-Mart has a free trade zone in Northwest Arkansas.

They use it to receive direct jumbo jet flights bringing merchandise in from China.

[azhenfud]

"...under 2-3 weeks..."

Hence the saying, "A slow boat to(from) China." LOL!

[flashbunny]

Sorry, I wasn't really addressing walmart specifically, but more along the lines of chinese goods that I have some experience with. I've seen projects get delayed because 'the boat hasn't arrived yet' or 'the goods are still stuck in customs', etc.

[rmmcdaniell]

Its tough to work 100 hrs/week when you've got SARS.

[GrandMoM]

Should all Chinese products be gamma ray sterilized before placed into inventory?

Who sneezed in that toy?....SHOP AT WAL-MART=GET SARS!

[BJungNan]

Wal-Mart has 26 stores in China...

They do. Not that I have seen.

[GrandMoM]

I think only if the secondary exposure is within 24 hours after initial contamination, products would then be considered "probable carriers". Over half of the incubation period would be exhausted in air travel from China to U.S. alone - and most products are container shipped. Leastwise, I'm hoping so....

....are you willing to take that chance??????

....I'm not!

[Unwavering Conservative]

Who works 100 hours a week?

[wideminded]

Poetic justice. Didn't they advertise their Buy American program several years ago?

[Unwavering Conservative]

I thought Japan was the only Asian nation with Wal-Mart stores, but apparently it isn't.

[TaxRelief]

*ping*

[Unwavering Conservative]

They sure did.

They got caught lying about it when Stone Phillips of Dateline NBC went into some of their stores with a hidden camera and expose how they put Made In USA signs on top of the racks, while the goods were made in Sri Lanka and Communist China and Pakistan.

I do not like the liberal angle of NBC, but I was sure glad to see Stone Phillips expose Wal-Mart for their big lie.

[Unwavering Conservative]

What folks don't realize is that Wal-Mart has a free trade zone in Northwest Arkansas which they use to bring in massive amounts of goods from Communist China, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangadesh and other nation.

They use direct jumbo jet flights from them nations to bring the goods into that free trade zone.

[Unwavering Conservative]

I made an error.

I typed Bangadesh, when I meant to type Bangladesh.

I apologize for this error.

[azhenfud]

"....are you willing to take that chance??????"

Yes, until the evidence proves I need to consider otherwise. Knowing the CDC has determined with reasonable accuracy, the survival of the host-free virus is 24 hours, as well as knowing the shipment lengths of many products - above two to three days at least - gives me good reason not to fear SARS from merchandise contact. Choosing to live in fear of things with low probabilities of occurrance isn't something I do well at.

[Dark Wing]

ping

[~Peter]

Me thinks that it should be the Chinese that stay up all night to speak to the purchasing execs at Bentonville during the day in Arkansas.

They want to sell their cheap good to the US ... let THEM work for it.

[Unwavering Conservative]

I would agree, but you must remember that the folks who run Wal-Mart care nothing about our great nation.

[GrandMoM]

Yes, until the evidence proves I need to consider otherwise....well that's good, cause, all countries involved, including the United States have been real straightfoward with their information.

.... NOT!

.... I don't fear it, but I am sure not going to challenge it!

[BJungNan]

I had heard the Walmart was going to have one, maybe a couple in Southern, China. And maybe by now they do have over 20 stores. But none are in Shanghai or Beijing that I have seen. Guess they like the southern part of China - although I can not understand why anyone would.