Filed under: Good news, Wal-Mart (WMT), Marketing and advertising

Even people like myself, who aren’t avowed Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) haters were appalled by the company’s callousness: Deborah Shank was severely brain damaged after a crash with a truck. Her insurance, provided by Wal-Mart, paid for her medical needs, and Ms. Shank and her husband received $700,000 in a settlement from the trucking company that crashed into her. Then Wal-Mart, a $190 billion company, sued for the money to recoup the amount it spent on her medical care.

The media firestorm that ensued consisted of hundreds of articles and nearly universal condemnation of Wal-Mart’s antic. When I wrote about the sad case of Deborah Shank back in December, we were inundated with comments including these:

Walmart - Definitely the definition you would find under present day Scrooge

This company just SUCKS majorly.

EVERYBODY SHOULD BOYCOTT WALMART PERMANENTLY

Now Wal-Mart has, in a a gesture of magnanimity, sent the Shank family a letter saying it will stop seeking to collect the money she won in the lawsuit.

Here’s what’s so dumb about this whole case: Wal-Mart has spent millions in recent years trying to convince everyone the company isn’t evil — check out Walmartfacts.com. And then it can go and generate far more negative publicity with a story like this all in an effort to collect $700,000 — after legal fees.

It’s a good thing it finally did the right thing, but this whole episode is indicative of the company’s public relations stupidity.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, April 6th, 2008 at 5:08 pm and is filed under Marketing and Advertising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.