By David Pinto
To boldly assert that 2025, the year about to end, has seen a surfeit of news in the mass retailing community, is to overstate the obvious. Want some examples?
Two of America’s formidable mass retailers — Target and Kroger — have suddenly (or not so) been forced to confront difficult days, many of which have been brought about by internal ineptitude. Result: Each finds itself scrambling to right the self-inflicted wrongs that have seriously upset its road to mass market leadership.
The chain drug industry, long lauded as downturn resistant, has suddenly (or not so) been forced to confront difficult days. This is especially true of America’s three largest drug chains, one of which has already ceased to operate. The coming year will seriously test the fortitude and resilience of the other two.
Actions or threats emanating from the current federal administration have put unprecedented pressure on the mass retailing community. The coming year will largely answer this key retailing question: How resilient will the U.S. retailing community prove to be when confronted by negative forces not of its own making?
However, these and other newsworthy items have paled when compared to the seismic announcement emanating from Bentonville, Ark., last month: Doug McMillon, arguably the most accomplished and successful American retailing executive our industry has seen during the first quarter of the 21st century, is about to retire.
It is difficult, at this early date, to accurately assess McMillon’s many singular accomplishments. Broadly speaking, he (and his associates) have successfully — and, some say, astonishingly — brought one of the world’s great retailers to new levels of achievement. The obvious examples of this new tier of excellence can be readily seen in the retailer’s balance sheet. In terms of sales, earnings, store growth, operating efficiencies, degree of separation between Walmart and its competitors, McMillon’s imprint can be easily seen, identified and credited.
Beyond these operating statistics, the Walmart chief executive has recast and reformulated a mass retailer than was already in a class by itself. He (with his associates) has corrected many of the criticisms formerly leveled at this discount retailer. He has brought balance and new opportunities to a merchandise assortment once faulted by critics as too predictable, too old, too ordinary. He has broadened that assortment to attract new customers while reinforcing the allegiances of the old ones. He has supplemented the price/value formula that had long identified and pigeon-holed Walmart with a new appeal to shoppers for whom the old formulae ceased to broaden the customer base.
Internally, he (and his associates) has brought new luster and allegiance to the Walmart brand. He has given Walmart’s associates new and legitimate reasons to respect, admire and, yes, adore the company for which they work. Moreover, he has done so with apparent ease, an ease that reflects his own engaging personality and quiet confidence in his ability to get things done — and create joy in the process of doing.
One could go on (almost) indefinitely. For those of us who have, over his tenure as CEO, gotten to know and admire him, it’s easy to characterize his departure as the end of an era, an era of unprecedented accomplishment and new levels of achievement.
However, the last words on this initial period of change are yet to be written. This is, after all, Walmart. Thus, no ending is a final ending — and everything remains possible.
