There are 3 clubs in Washington and I had never meet the other two people that we going until we got to Sea-Tac. These were my pals for the next few days. There was Chantell from the Auburn Club and Mary from Renton. Our travel for the first day included flying to Colorado, then catching our next flight to Oklahoma. Once we got to Oklahoma, we got on a bus and drove to Arkansas. Once we got to OK there were associates from home office there to pick us up. They has us sign in and took our photo..we decided that we wanted a group shot.
The bus ride seemed to take forever! All of the excitement was building up of finally getting to our dorms and preparing for the concert that evening. The weather was very hot and humid. Something that we are not used to in Washington.
I don't know about the other girls but by the time of this photo I was over heating. On top of that there was the lack of sleep and not eating until we arrived, not a good combo. I was about to throw up. Luckily we stood in the shade until they opened up the doors for the concert.
The first concert that they had lined up was a country one. No surprise there :) I didn't know who the people were that we going to play but everyone that I told about the concert said that it was going to be a good show. I will have to admit that as far as country music it was not too bad!
The opening act was Chris Young..
Carrie Underwood!
The next morning came fast. This whole week I think that I only got about 2 hours of sleep every night. My room mate that I was assigned to was sick. That made me not want to hang around my room and all that my room mate did was sleep. She missed out on all of the activities. Lets just say that I was not impressed with her at all. I tried to small talk with her. All that I was able to find out (or cared to find out) was that she was a team lead over the electronics in a club in California. She told me that she didn't know much about computer and that stuff so when members asked her about them she would just "wing" it. Bet her club was proud to send her..
The place that they had us stay was the University of Arkansas campus. This is the arena where the concerts and the share holders was held. We were on our way to breakfast and to sign up to go to Walmarts Home Office.
We got on a bus and went to Bentonville to HO. This place was nothing like I would have ever imagined, it was a lot trashier then I would have thought. They were proud about how "down to earth" it was but I think that they could spend a little money. These photos are from inside.
President of Walmart Mike Duke's office. We were not allowed past the threshold.
I liked this coffee table. It would be interesting to do something like this in a real room.
Self photo :)
It was an interesting experience taking the tour. It was fun to see how things are ran back there. Then next place that we went to on our tour was the 5 and dime store. This was the original location where Sam Walton started it all.
The store which is now a museum..
The two pictures above are Sam Walton's office. This is exactly how he had left it. They had to move it from HO to the museum. We were told that they took photos and video recorded the room so that they were able to get it exactly how he had left it. I thought that it was a awesome idea but a tad bit odd at the same time.
Sam's Truck..
I thought that these coke bottles were awesome. They were from the 25th anniversary of Walmart. This year was a special one it was the 50th anniversary of Walmart. When we got back on the bus they had left a coke bottle with the 50th logo on it. Sad story about that though, when I did my presentation at work I knocked the bottle over and it shattered. I am glad that it didn't do that in my suitcase. That could have been a big problem!
The museum was located in a cute little historic square..
Fountain in the square..
These pink snails were part of an art insulation around the square. I loved them..the locals were not really that impressed. I guess that they just don't understand art.
Once we were loaded on the bus we headed back to go to the vendors fair. While we were on the freeway the bus started to slow down a little bit. Our tour guide made the statement that we were hitting some traffic. I looked to see what this "traffic" was all about. We slowed down by maybe ten miles a hour and there was about 15 cars on the road. It made us laugh and we agreed that we would take that "traffic" any day.
There were tons of booths at the vendors fair. There was many free samples and fun things to take photos of. It was kind of a drag that it was so hot outside. We kind of quickly walked through it all fast and hung out where there was some shade.
There were a bunch of interactive booths that you could get photos. This one was the best. I didn't really get a good prop so I was trying to be serious in it. Not sure if I am exactly pulling that one off but it is still a fun pic.
The campus was a neat place. Its kind of a shame that it has to be in the middle of Arkansas. This is where Bill Clinton went to school. There are a couple streets/buildings named after them. Then there is the Waltons. Last of all there is the Tyson Company. I thought that this building was funny. Every time that we walked past it I kept saying how I needed to get a photo by it. Simple things are good things to be entertained by.
This is one of the best ideas in the world! Walmart on Campus..got to love the low prices that they offer. This was next door to the bookstore where everything is so freakin over priced. I believe that they should start putting these up in different campus it was just a small little store but they had just about anything that you could think of.
This night the concert was the one that I was the most excited to go and see. I really could have cared less about the country give me some rock! One thing that people do at shareholders is trade pins. I was not really informed about this before I came so I didn't have any to trade, luckily Chantell was nice enough to let me have some of her pins that her club had given her. By the end my lanyard was full.
Cheap Trick was the opening band. They were freakin awesome. (I had to come home and buy their record.)
Aerosmith was head lining. This was the one thing that I was most excited about. They rocked! Brad doesn't really care for them so it was nice to be able to see them and not have to take him with me. I am willing to bet that this was the driest concert that they have ever done. There was no alcohol, pot, or swearing. They did drop the f bomb a couple of times, which just made me laugh. That is what you get when you perform for Walmart..
The second to last day that we were out there was the day that all of us from Sam's Club got together to go tour Club Support (Sam's home office.)
Here they split us up in our markets. It was actually a cold day and I was very mad at myself for not bringing a sweatshirt. From extreme heat one day to cold and windy the next. Once again it was like a huge party.
Our market that includes Alaska, Washington, and part of California.
Washington people with our market manager Jeff.
Mary and me..
While we were on our tour, I believe it was Chantell that noticed that our photo that they had taken the first day was being shown on the TV. It was on one of the 4 slides that were being repeated. This means that we were famous and that everyone got to see out beautiful faces. It was a funny thing.
My camera was dieing the whole time that I was here at Club Support and I was wanting to make sure that I saved it for the things that I was going to want to document. Having a sick room mate make me not want to be in there in my dorm and I had totally forgotten to charge it. It was not a happy realization.
This is our market in Roz Brewer's office. She is the President and CEO of Sam's Club. Here we were allowed to go inside. We were told to sit at her desk, look around, and to use her phone. This place has a total different feel to it them Walmart's Home Office. It was a lot more friendly, clean, and open. Sams is defiantly the company to work for.
The whole week that we were out there I was kind of having some shit luck. I had lost my key and had a sick room mate. Well I have one more thing that I got to add to my list. As I had mentioned above outside was really windy and cold. This is where we had to eat lunch under some tents that they had set up. It was BBQ meat and baked beans. Chantell was sitting next to me eating. Some how the wind caught her plate just right, picked it up, and flipped it into my face. It happened in slow motion and there was nothing that I was able to do about it. I laughed so hard that I was crying and I wasn't the only one. I had beans everywhere. Luckily I was wearing the shirt that they had given us and it took most of the abuse. It was a mess..Something that I won't forget.
While we were at Club Support there was a meeting that we had to go to. The only photo that I got from that is from Chantell's phone.
This is Roz, the President and CEO of Sam's Club
There were other celeberties that were there but they were sports people so I can't remember who they were exactly. On was a former football player for the Cowboys. There was the lady soccer player (she was the one that ripped off her shirt and was just in her sports bra.) The last person that they had come and talk to us was Fergie from the Black Eye Peas. Not that impressive of a line up for me but I am sure that it made other people excited.
When this meeting was done we loaded up on the bus and headed out to another activity. We went to another concert. It was at some type of a fair grounds in the middle of a field. It was a weird place I personally though but fun just the same.
He put on a good show but it was almost too cold to enjoy it. A pick was thrown out to the audiance and it hit my foot but I didn't pick it up. I just didn't know what type of a STD I would get from it :) I am sure the guy that picked it up will treasure it a lot more then I would have.
This was pretty much what the first 4 days were like. It was a constant party, packed full of entertainment. I got to see and do a ton of things that I never dreamed of doing. How this whole week works is that every store from around the world sends someone to attend. The international people are insane! They have so much pride in letting you know where they are from. They filled up a third of the auditorium. I made me very excited to be part of the company that I work for. I will post about the actually Shareholder Meeting tomorrow.
1 comment:
Looks like you had a good time, that blows about the sick roommate though.
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