Walmart Cited on 2012 Black Friday Protests, Escalates 2013 Price Battle

Walmart -- already aggressive with 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. Thanksgiving Day doorbusters and 8 a.m. Black Friday deals -- ratcheted up the pressure on competitors Tuesday with a “pre-Black Friday savings event” that begins Friday at 8 a.m. in stores and online. In its announcement that “shoppers don’t have to wait until Black Friday” to begin shopping for deals, Walmart said its “pre-Black Friday” event will lower prices on toys and electronics to match Black Friday deals from Target, Toys R Us and Best Buy “one week early.”

CE products that are part of the “pre-Black Friday” event include an LG 50-inch TV ($448 down from $598), LeapPad 2 ($39 from $79) and select PS4 and Xbox One videogames including Call of Duty: Ghosts, NBA 2K14 and Battlefield 4 ($10 off to $49). Deals are while supplies last, Walmart said.

Walmart also tweaked its Christmas Ad Match program so Walmart.com customers who buy an item on Walmart.com -- and find it priced lower at a brick-and-mortar competitor -- can receive the difference in the form of a Walmart gift card. Shoppers email the price, retailer name, store ZIP code, ad date range and the page number of the competitor’s ad to christmasadmatch@walmart.com along with the order confirmation number from Walmart.com. The policy is in place for customers buying items from Nov. 1-Dec. 24, except for Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday, when the matching policy is only good for customers shopping in store, Walmart said. Deals must be advertised for the same day and time a customer is in a Walmart store to be valid. The ad matching program doesn’t apply to gift card deals, bundles or buy-one-get-one free promotions.

Target, too, is offering price-matching against advertised products from its own stores and e-commerce site, Amazon.com, Walmart.com, BestBuy.com, ToysRUs.com, BabiesRUs.com or in a competitor’s local printed ad, but the program doesn’t apply to Black Friday ads. Third-party seller’s prices won’t be honored, and matching only applies to advertised prices, not “cart” prices, Target said. Target’s policy runs from Nov. 1-Dec. 21, but not for prices offered Nov. 28-Dec. 2 or Dec. 22-26. Best Buy, meanwhile, vowed to be competitive on price on its earnings call Tuesday (see separate report in this issue).

Meanwhile, in a decision dating back to Black Friday protests last year, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) said Monday that Walmart violated the rights of employees protesting working conditions. The NLRB said it found merit in some of the charges made against Walmart and no merit in others. If the two parties cannot reach settlements in the cases, the NLRB will issue formal complaints, it said.

A joint statement from Walmart employee organization OUR Walmart, which advocates for better wages and benefits, and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), which organized the Black Friday 2012 strike, praised the NLRB decision to “prosecute Walmart for its widespread violations of its workers’ rights.” The decision will provide “additional protection for Walmart’s 1.3 million employees when they are speaking out for better jobs,” the UFCW said. The NLRB “will prosecute Walmart’s illegal firings and disciplinary actions” that involved more than 117 workers, the UFCW said.

Ahead of Black Friday 2012 some Walmart managers “escalated their efforts to threaten and discourage workers from going on legally protected strikes,” the UFCW said, calling out Walmart spokesman David Tovar, who said on national TV “there would be consequences” for workers who did not come in for scheduled shifts on Black Friday.

The NLRB cited several cases that violated employees’ right to protest working conditions under the National Labor Relations Act, including statements made by Walmart management during two national TV broadcasts and in statements to employees at Walmart stores in California and Texas. Walmart “unlawfully threatened employees with reprisal” if they engaged in strikes and protests on Nov. 22 last year, it said.

Additionally, Walmart stores in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and Washington “unlawfully threatened, disciplined, and/or terminated employees for having engaged in legally protected strikes and protests,” the NLRB said. And Walmart stores in California, Florida, Missouri and Texas “unlawfully threatened, surveilled, disciplined, and/or terminated employees in anticipation of or in response to employees’ other protected concerted activities,” according to NLRB findings. Walmart did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Prior to the NLRB announcement Monday, Walmart made a PR play, announcing that the company for the first time “surprised more than 350 associates” with “on-the-spot promotions” during planned town hall meetings in Atlanta, Dallas and Phoenix. The retailer brought in former National Football League players Takeo Spikes in Atlanta and Deion Sanders in Dallas and Patrick Peterson, cornerback of the Arizona Cardinals, in Phoenix to “congratulate associates on their promotions.” Meetings were connected via satellite “so colleagues at the home office in Bentonville, Ark., could witness the excitement and let associates know how much their hard work is valued,” Walmart said.

Elsewhere, Cleveland’s The Plain Dealer posted a photo Monday of containers at a Walmart store in Canton, Ohio, that read “Please donate food items here so associates in need can enjoy Thanksgiving Dinner.” The story elicited numerous comments from news outlets and bloggers who saw irony in a Walmart store seeking assistance for employees as they cited much-documented criticism of Walmart associates’ salaries. The story quoted a Walmart spokesman who said the drive was part of the store’s community culture to help associates who are experiencing “hardship.”