The Walmart Cheer!

The first rule of Walmart club… don’t talk about Walmart club.

 

"I believe it was motivational tactic started by Sam Walton himself. He never flew and made spot checks in his Thunderbird(?) to check on his stores unannounced."

This is a folk tale about Sam not flying. He flew his own plane, was too cheap to hire a co-pilot and put the plane on autopilot to hold meetings with his managers in the back of the plane.

I knew a Walmart district manager that shared that with me about 6 years ago.

 

And that dude was yanking your chain. Nobody can do that. That's highly illegal. I'm a pilot, I know. You can't "set the plane on autopilot and hold meetings." You are in constant contact with air traffic control and you can't do that from the back of the plane.

 

He never flew? He had a pilot’s license and owned his own airplanes.

 

Back in the day when trucking was fun all the drivers from all different companies, Teamster or independent got together before coffee and breakfast in the truck stop parking lots for a little morning cheer much like this.

 

Like an episode of the office

 

New Caney, TX DC, probably three or four years ago.

Making a drop delivery. Walk into the receiving office (security didn’t stamp your paperwork there), and there’s five or six other drivers there, but no one in the office. One guy points to the door to the docks. They’re having a rah-rah meeting. I look through the little prison window and two of the troglodytes just laugh.
Took me over 40 minutes just to get stuff signed. I swore I’d never return, and I haven’t. Screw them.

 

When you guys start talking about the Wal-Mart cheer, and team building exercises, and other weird things that management comes up with I always think about this movie...

 

The cheer has gone by the wayside for the most part. If anyone is still doing it they need to be placed in a mental health facility.