Message to Walmart: You can spend yourself into prosperity or save yourself into bankruptcy

Re: Walmart’s decision to eliminate greeters.

From CBS News: “ The retail giant last week started replacing greeters at roughly 1,000 of its locations across the U.S. with what the company calls ‘customer hosts,’ according to a Walmart spokesperson.”

I’m not one to wrap brands in social justice flags as many of you know and hate about me. Conversely, I am against enterprises whose actions cut against the grain of decency.

The trends of anti-capitalism and anti-consumption don’t bode well for commerce and that scares me. But firms who lack the moral center and sensing skills to simply do the right thing is pouring rocket fuel on these embers of discontent.

Here’s an idea: Somebody out there contact Walmart and offer to sponsor the re-hiring of the thousands of Walmart greeters, many of whom are elderly or disabled. They can wear vests for your brand as a signal that not everyone is losing their sense of humanity. Walmart can try to redeem themselves by taking the money and invest it back into their workforce. It might inspire young brand owners and marketers to learn that useful solutions for their customers and behaving as a corporation with a conscience are not mutually exclusive.