Wal-Mart Offers to Help Obama

New York City In an appearance Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Wal-Mart Stores CEO Less Scott said the chain had offered to help the incoming Obama administration with health-care and environmental issues.

“These are not times to be self-serving,” he said. “We have a responsibility to participate.”

Scott also discussed how Wal-Mart shoppers are changing their shopping habits to cope with the recession.

“We’re seeing an increase in food storage as people are cooking more at home,” he said. “In our pharmacy group, we have increases in prescription drugs, but not at the same rate it was. What we’re seeing is an increase in self-treatment.”

Scott, who will retire in early 2009, said that small businesses are also changing how they buy goods. Cash-strapped restaurant owners are visiting the stores more frequently to buy supplies for the following day as opposed to buying in bulk.

“The No. 1 issue today is [consumers’] concern about their job,” Scott said.