CASE STUDY
Luther Henderson was a long-term frequent Walmart shopper often spending $325 weekly on groceries and other merchandise for his family of seven. That is, until he lost his part-time job that helped to supplement his regular job as a police officer. Luther, however, knew that in a few months he would be able to find another part-time job. Therefore, he was surprised when he tried to put $794 in holiday gifts on layaway at his local Walmart and discovered that only $144 worth was eligible for layaway because the firm had a policy of not allowing all merchandise to be eligible for layaway. In disgust, he departed without putting any merchandise on layaway and also left $139 in groceries in his shopping cart. That evening, he mentioned his experience to Sally, his wife of 19 years. Sally mentioned that her friend Karen had a similar experience and decided to visit the local Kmart that she had not patronized for over decade. At Kmart, Karen had no problem putting on layaway 15 holiday gifts that totaled over $700. Karen liked the experience so much, and so disliked and was offended by the Walmart layaway policy that she decided to boycott Walmart. Sally urged Luther to join Karen in her boycott. Luther reminded Sally that his grandfather gave him $100 of Walmart stock when he was born in 1975 and that last year when they prepared income taxes, his $100 of stock had increased to over $200,000. That evening Luther decided, as a long-term Walmart shareholder, he should first write to the senior management about his concern with the layaway policy.
Assignment
1. Look up the senior management group at Walmart and decide to whom Luther should write.
2. Compose a letter that you think would be appropriate for Luther to send to Walmart.
Note: If you have never written a formal business letter you might want to do some research to ensure your letter is written correctly. As a business person it is important that you know how to write a proper business letter. See the example below.
