The Good Ship Wal-Mart Still Leaks.
This time the subject is the bank of Wal-Mart. Oh yeah, the leak also suggests that Wal-Mart has been lying like a rug yet again. From today’s NYT:
An Ohio representative is planning to release information today that suggests Wal-Mart’s ambitions into consumer banking may extend beyond what the retail giant had previously disclosed.
The information, in the form of an e-mail message sent by a Wal-Mart employee, suggested that the company was laying the groundwork to offer its own banking products. Wal-Mart has long insisted that it was not interested in branch banking but was looking to use the bank as a way to save money.
But Representative Paul E. Gillmor, an Ohio Republican, said last night that he was concerned that the undated e-mail message suggested that Wal-Mart was telling its tenants, some which are retail banks, that it was reserving the right to become a full-service bank, including the underwriting of mortgages.
So where did Representaive Gillmor get the e-mail?:
Mr. Gillmor would not say who provided him the e-mail document, but a person briefed on the situation said that it came from a banking industry group and was probably three or four weeks old.
So Wal-Mart employees leak to unions and Wal-Mart employees leak to banking industry groups. And, of course, they just fired the one rogue employee who tried to fix it all (that’s sarcasm, folks). It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that the company can’t go on this way.
Despite what many of the company’s defenders including myself have said in the past, does this really surprise anyone? I imagine not.
Anyway, all these leaks are quite disturbing. Maybe it’s time to clean up my blog and get my resume in order. It sounds like Wal-Mart needs me now more than ever.
Shalom Jonathan,
All along I’ve said that Wal-Mart’s claims that it just wanted to process credit and debit card transactions was pure bull shit.
According to a Marketplace segment up right now, the company is trying to complain that there’s nothing new here.
Yeah. Right.
B’shalom,
Jeff
[...] Here’s the follow up to my post this morning. From Bloomberg: Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s new leases with bank-branch tenants are “a smoking gun’’ that Congress should weigh as it considers a bill to ban the world’s largest retailer from operating a bank, a lawmaker said. [...]
Not only do they want a full service bank, they promoted all of their Directors in their Financial Services Division to Senior Directors with the exception of the guy in charge of “obtaining the bank charter”. He will keep his Director title until he has successfully gotten approval for a bank………..Poor guy, talk about being in the hot seat! Imagine being in a position where the Federal Government calls the shots and this 1 lone soldier is responsible for convincing the US Finance Committee and a host of others that Wal-Mart should operate a bank or no promotion ………and perhaps no job if it doesn’t happen soon. If I were this guy I would keep my resume updated and maybe even send out a few………..YOU THINK?