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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFormer Walmart District Manager Accuses Company of Widespread Inventory Manipulation
(The Nation) In 1996, Sylvester Johnson left his post as a commanding officer in the US Army and began a career managing logistics at Walmarts corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. Once there, he received a series of rapid promotions, eventually overseeing the HR management of over 26,000 employees in five states. He became friendly with Walmart executive Mike Duke, who became CEO in 2009. In 2002, Johnson received the Sam M. Walton Hero Award, a prestigious company distinction. In 2003, he moved to North Carolina where he oversaw eleven Walmart Supercenters. The company fired him in 2009 for allegedly giving orders to manipulate inventory counts, a claim Johnson denies.
Instead, Johnson believes he was ultimately terminated because he is black. He also allegesin an interview with The Nation and in a federal discrimination lawsuitthat the company engaged in widespread inventory manipulation.
We're talking about hiding tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in losses hereinflating the profits of a store, a district, a region, a division and ultimately the entire company, Johnson told The Nation. In theory, such a practice could have artificially inflated the companys profit margins and stock price, amounting to a form of federal securities fraud.
Johnson claims that during his tenure as a Walmart district manager he was pressured by the companys high command to hide losses due to shrinkagedefined as lost or stolen inventoryin order for stores to appear more profitable than they really were. Throughout the course of over six hours of interviews with The Nation, Johnson maintained that top management set shrinkage targets for Walmart Supercenter stores under his supervision that were not ethically attainable and then used methods of fear and intimidation against him in an attempt to compel him to meet those targets. Shrinkage represents a loss to any firms bottom line. It is a major factor in retail profitability, costing US retailers an estimated $34 billion in losses annually, according to the National Retail Federation. ............................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/article/173689/former-walmart-district-manager-accuses-company-widespread-inventory-manipulation#
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Former Walmart District Manager Accuses Company of Widespread Inventory Manipulation (Original Post)
marmar
Apr 2013
OP
Even as a regular associate, we were told to put empty packages on the shelf during inventory...
Comrade_McKenzie
Apr 2013
#1
Comrade_McKenzie
(2,526 posts)1. Even as a regular associate, we were told to put empty packages on the shelf during inventory...
So that the inventory company would count it.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)2. I am not surprised by this report at all.
Wal-Mart has proved the adage "Nothing goes up forever" and many reports are leaking out about the chain being in fianancial trouble.
Their penny pinching, employee abusive methods pretty much guarentee the end result of haivng huge problems.