That's the headline in this week's Boulder Weekly tabloid. Seems that Boulder is once again on the Wal-Mart radar screen. The ultra-liberal Boulder City Council sent Wal-Mart packing in the early 1990s, but it seems that interest in a new super store has resurfaced. It's a new day in Boulder. Because of progressive "no growth" initiatives, many businesses were turned away over the last 15 years. They went elsewhere - like two miles outside of Boulder City limits - close enough that Boulder residents shop there, but outside the city so the city doesn't receive the tax benefits. Boulder's primary shopping center now sits more than 50% vacant. This is the site that Wal-Mart is looking at. Boulder is considering joining the other 2,713 communities that have allowed Wal-Marts to open in their town.
Approximately 70 Wal-Mart coin-op amusement companies and manufacturers have recently made the annual trek to Bentonville, Ark., Wal-Mart's corporate headquarters. The department that manages the coin-operated games that are located in Wal-Mart foyers, Wal-Mart family fun centers, and various other places throughout the store, annually invites all of their operators to a vendor round-up. Our company shows up with 20 Sugarloaf employees. We take some grief from our competitors for this football team-sized presentation, but for us, exposing our Sugarloaf executives to Wal-Mart in their home office auditorium to absorb just some of the unique Wal-Mart culture is a bargain for us. The round-up is a time to learn about the status of the coin-op business from Wal-Mart's eyes, as well as a time to learn about Wal-Mart's vision and expectations for the upcoming year. Wal-Mart has approximately 50,000 coin-operated machines located in their U.S. stores. The gross coin-operated revenue generated by the cranes, kiddie rides, video games and bulk vending equipment in U.S. Wal-Marts exceeded $150,000,000 in 2001. Not to belabor the point, but that's more than a $400,000-per-day account. I don't know offhand who would be our industry's second largest customer, but I'm pretty sure that Wal-Mart is the largest. If you take the Vending Times survey and add up these four categories, the total industry income is approximately $2,000,000,000. Wal-Mart is a sizeable 7.5% of these categories industry wide.
As Wal-Mart is American Coin's largest customer by far, I spend a great deal of time working with the Other Income Department at Wal-Mart. Over the last four years, I've learned many things through my dealings with Wal-Mart that has impacted how I view businesses of any kind. It's a lesson of a lifetime to work with Wal-Mart. I can't even imagine how valuable working "for" Wal-Mart must be. I do want to share some of what I've learned about Wal-Mart, the world's largest corporation, that you might find interesting.
Did I say that Wal-Mart is the largest corporation in the world, recently surpassing the likes of Exxon and General Motors? Wal-Mart sales in 2001 were $219 billion. They are also the largest employer in the United States, employing over 1.2 million associates. Any executive in the company, if asked how Sam Walton did it, will harmoniously tell you "One store at a time." Sam is gone now, but the lessons are retold everyday in Bentonville.
From a vendor's perspective, Wal-Mart is unlike any other customer. The Wal-Mart opposition frequently found fighting new stores' openings is correct on one thing: Wal-Mart's expectations for their vendors is brutal. With over 65,000 total vendors that Wal-Mart deals with at any given time, you can imagine that competition is intense to say the least. Many of these companies, ours included, would look a lot different without Wal-Mart as a customer. The expectations at Wal-Mart are that every day is a new day, and what happened yesterday made you a player today. Tomorrow is a new day, and you had better be on your game or you might be on the outside looking in very quickly. Dale Carnegie preached that you should only talk about things that "you've earned the right to talk about." Wal-Mart has earned the right with their accomplishments. The expectations of vendors are somewhere just beyond perfection. I call it an "earned arrogance." It's like someone saying that Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods thinks they are the greatest golfers that ever lived. They are the greatest golfers that ever lived. They can act however they want. They've earned that right, and I respect it. So has Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart is a unique employer. Every Wal-Mart executive would tell you the key to their success is the people. Here's what's different. They aren't just saying it. They have mastered getting extraordinary results from ordinary people. There aren't many Wal-Mart associates who wouldn't lie down in front of an oncoming train if the president of Wal-Mart asked them to. They must have invented the concept of empowering their people. They give their people a task and stay out of their way. It gets a little scary sometimes as a vendor. There are first and second-year associates making million-dollar decisions everyday.
Wal-Mart has intensive training programs for all associates when they start a new job at Wal-Mart. Then they have ongoing training that keeps them fresh. Most businesses make a pretty good attempt at the initial training, but the continuing education at all levels is a real challenge. For most, the ongoing training is OTJ (on the job). People at Wal-Mart know what the expectations are for their jobs.
Systems rule at Wal-Mart. Department heads get financial data daily. They get their month-end data sooner than most single-unit hot dog stands. It's a very few days before a Wal-Mart department head knows how he did the prior month.
Wal-Mart has been successful at getting not just the physical performance from their associates, but they get the emotional performance as well. As one put it, Wal-Mart motivates employees by helping you help others. They are very community and charity minded. Associates are encouraged to and generally do buy into the many social projects Wal-Mart has going on at any given time. They are not just working to help themselves, they are helping others.
Sure, Wal-Mart has changed the retail landscape. Lots of businesses were unable to compete and went away. A sad fact, but businesses are winning and losing every day. Wal-Mart has built a better mousetrap. If the consumer didn't like Wal-Mart and what it provided them, Wal-Mart wouldn't exist in its present form. It would still be a one-store five-and-dime in downtown Bentonville. Clearly, Sam Walton challenged the status quo and blew it up. His deal is better, and the public votes every day with their dollars.
So here's my message to the Boulder City Council: Seize the opportunity and bring Wal-Mart to Boulder. The Boulder Weekly refers to the Bentonville Billionaires Club. So be it. I think that's just terrific. Those who take risks in business deserve the rewards. In reality, allowing a Wal-Mart in Boulder may be a turning point to revitalize retail action in the city of Boulder. This is exactly what's happened in numerous cities throughout the U.S.