Walmart 2004 Annual Report Download - page 9

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At work, McCarthy’s store
manager, Carol Moralez,
encouraged him to apply
to Wal-Mart’s Associate in
Critical Need Trust, which
helps Associates struck by
catastrophe. McCarthy says
he didn’t think much about
it, but within two weeks
Wal-Mart handed him a
check, which the family
used to buy much-needed
food and clothing.
“It went a long way toward
making our lives a little
easier,” says McCarthy.
“Right now, we are renting
a house up the street that
didn’t burn while we’re
waiting for our house to
be rebuilt.”
“I really like working here,”
says McCarthy. “It’s
amazing to me that I’d only
been working here nine days when this happened, and
still,Wal-Mart helped me out so much. I’ve worked in
other retail stores, but this feels like more of a
family kind of environment where people look
out for each other. It really feels like home.”
Steve Chadwick
Steve Chadwick was a part-time college student
studying computer information systems in 1988
when he signed on for an hourly job unloading
trucks at a SAM’S CLUB in San Antonio,Texas.
At that point, he really didn’t expect to stay in
the retail business after his college degree
was completed.
But in 1990, Chadwick’s father convinced him to
re-evaluate that expectation, reminding him that
SAM’S CLUB had already offered him a slot in the
Company management training program. Chadwick
decided to give it a shot. Later that year, he became an
assistant manager at San Antonio’s Club 8287. After
serving as an assistant manager in two additional Clubs,
Chadwick became a general manager at a Club in Austell,
Ga. Then, after running the Club for 18 months, he
decided to move back home.
“So I took a step back into the assistant manager role and
went back to my old Club in San Antonio,” Chadwick says.
“Less than a year later, I was promoted to general
manager at another Club in San Antonio, close to where I
attended high school.”
Chadwick moved on to another general manager job in
Baton Rouge, La., where he soon received a call from the
home office in Bentonville, Ark., asking if he would try his
hand as a regional personnel manager, based on his
success at building positive employee relations.
But for Chadwick, many opportunities remained on the
horizon. In 2001, he became divisional fresh merchandiser
for a trade territory extending from Milwaukee,Wis., to
Alaska. And he had only been in that role nine months
when he was asked to move to his current job as director
of operations for SAM’S CLUB Region 8, covering his
native San Antonio and south Texas.
“It was a dream come true,” says Chadwick.
“As big an organization as we are, we
don’t forget about the people side of
the business,”he says. “If you are
hungry, enthusiastic and you want
to grow with this organization,
they give you the opportunity.
This organization will give you a
chance to do whatever you want.
If you want to be in aviation, we have
aviation. If you want to be in real estate,
construction, accounting, there are
opportunities there.”
“If you are hungry,
enthusiastic and you
want to grow with
this organization,
they give you the
opportunity.”
Steve Chadwick
Steve Chadwick