Former 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#
rsmith6621
(6,942 posts)Do we start putting corporate executives in JAIL.
Mnemosyne
(21,363 posts)leveymg
(36,418 posts)violations simply have not been enforced against Walmart because the company has powerful politicians in its pocket in both parties.
Also, Walmart is China, Inc., so it's untouchable.
formercia
(18,479 posts)and nothing happens
Quantess
(27,630 posts)supernova
(39,345 posts)So Wal-Mart is a giant house of cards that will implode of its own ponderous weight. Maybe not now, or next week, but that option is definitely out there.
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)eppur_se_muova
(36,227 posts)(Army of the Republic of Viet Nam)
In Asia (and in Europe, centuries ago) the tradition was that commanders were given a payroll based on the number of men under their command; it was up to them to distribute the money. If a commander wanted to claim he had more men than he really did, he could pocket the difference. The problem was ... that when serious fighting broke out his troops were under strength, and tended to lose disastrously. If he was willing to bet that other units would come to his rescue, and didn't care too much about casualties, the temptation to skim the payroll proved irresistible to many, and the ARVN was slowly 'infiltrated' by non-existent troops.
Kind of a stretch comparing Wal-Mart to Viet Nam, I know, but ...
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)Interesting!