Walmart CEO shops at Target

A Reuter’s report this week quotes the manager of a Target store in Rogers, Ark., regarding the fact that Mike Duke, president and CEO of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., is an occasional visitor in his store. Well of course he is. And so are hundreds if not thousands of other Walmart employees.

Target opened its store in Rogers two years ago and did Duke and other senior Walmart executives a huge favor. The store is less than a mile outside the gated entrance to the upscale community where many of Walmart’s senior officers are known to live. Prior to its opening, if Walmart executives wanted to check out Target they had to drive south about a half hour to Fayetteville.

Target chairman, president and CEO Gregg Steinhafel is presumably a regular visitor at Walmart stores in the Twin Cities area, but the big difference is he is able to do so with a degree of anonymity not available to Duke who is well known in the much smaller community of Rogers.