Walmart Shareholders Meeting 2011
A couple weeks ago, I had the privilege of traveling to Bentonville, Arkansas for the Annual Walmart Shareholders Meeting. Let me introduce you to some of my fellow Walmart Moms…
Melissa from Consumer Queen, Denise from Wholesome Mommy, Lori from My Wooden Spoon, Heather from The Domestic Diva, Caryn from RockinMama, Roxana from SpanglishBaby, Tara from Deal Seeking Mom, Jennae from Green Your Decor, yours truly at the top along with Tina from Mommy’s Kitchen. Jenn from Frugal Upstate {not pictured}
I had met a few of the Moms during my first trip to Walmart Headquarters, about a month ago. We attended meetings, met with some great people, and learned a ton.
Before I share with you some of the amazing talent from the Shareholders Meeting, I wanted to be sure to tell you that Walmart does NOT pay these performers. They perform as part of their promotional tours, sometimes for new albums or movies coming out.
Sharing jokes and stories was non other than Will Smith! He came down into the audience, walking right past us and even brushed up against Lori’s arm!
And there was some amazing musical talent too!
The most beautiful voice of Alicia Keys…
and oh YES! The Black Eyed Peas rocked the house!!
And my FAVORITE! Scotty McCreery, the 2011 American Idol! I’m not sure if it’s his cool country voice or the fact that he is a teenage baseball player {just like my son}, but I think Scotty is the best. I watched American Idol this year for the first time in several years, and had Scotty picked from the beginning.
We not only enjoyed all this entertainment, we also learned tons too.
Mike Duke, President and CEO of Walmart, spoke in length about the future of Walmart and it’s employees.
But more important than ALL the talent, more important than ALL the executives, were associates like this young man. He works in Chicago, and during his 5 years at Walmart, he has been promoted 8 times. He spoke about his job, his love for a company that supports him. And how recently he was able to help his Mom {standing next to him} pay her bills and suggest that she work for Walmart after being laid off.
We were pretty close to the stage, about row 10, but my camera still isn’t good enough to take such great photos. I’ve borrowed a few from the Walmart Shareholders Flickr page, and photographer Spencer Tirey from Tirey Photography.
You can view the Shareholders Meeting online and be sure to check out the cool time lapse that Heather shared!
Although our time in Bentonville was jam packed with meetings and tours, we were also able to have lots of fun! After the Saturday morning meeting, we visited the new Walton Five and Dime Store and Museum.
Displayed in the museum is a replica of Sam Walton’s office as well as his pickup truck, along with lots of interesting facts about how Sam built the empire we see today, Walmart.
They were even having a Farmer’s Market around the town square! I bought an apron…because of course, I needed another one!
All-in-all…I had a BLAST! We saw some of the new items coming out soon for the holidays, some new beauty products, including more organic items, and of course…I saw cool cupcake products! Let’s just say…your birthday parties will be costing you lots less in the near future!
Thank you to the Walmart Mom program and for another outstanding trip!!
Disclosure: This post is part of a campaign I am participating in with the Walmart Moms. Walmart has provided me with compensation for this post. My participation is voluntary and opinions, as always are my own.
