Welcome to the 46th installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions and just a bit of everything else when it comes down to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

In the last edition of The Wal-Mart Weekly, I took a look at Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT)'s consumer experience regarding the "processing" of customers efficiently. Wal-Mart churns out a world-leading amount of retail sales every month. Still, my experience with the way it handles customers -- from inventory levels to paying for merchandise -- still needs a lot of work.

This week, I'll be turning out a two-part series on a large even that occurred in St. Louis, Missouri last week. Wal-Mart's CEO, H. Lee Scott, delivered quite a note to about 7,000 of his U.S. managers last week. The meeting referred to Wal-Mart as the "Company of the Future." Was it lip service or a milestone of change in Scott's upcoming tenure?
What was Scott trying to say in a nutshell?

Wal-Mart has been the recipient of fierce backlash against its health care options made available to employees along with the company's sourcing of so many products from China -- among about 1,000 other things it gets raked over the coals for. Does Wal-Mart have the capability to become a social provider of health care and lead the retail industry in terms of above-average wages?

To a company that makes $11 billion a year in profit, some would say yes. To Wal-Mart shareholders and those that embrace individualism over socialism, Wal-Mart's workforce is provided for very competitively.

But Scott knows this. He's the person to continually drive down costs at the expense of all else in order to continue serving the Wal-Mart customer with the lowest retail prices in the most efficient manner. When it comes to shaving off a few dollars on health care costs for each employee to Chinese factory sourcing to energy efficiency, Wal-Mart could be looked at as a "skin and bones" type of operation with very little fat.

Scott told his troops that the retailer must become a "company of the future" from the standpoint of making medical records electronic (cutting costs) to using hybrid vehicle technology to save fuel (again, cutting costs).

Scott said "We live in a time when people are losing confidence in the ability of government to solve problems" -- and from that statement, he's implying that Wal-Mart (and private industry, really) needs to take charge of the situation. From Scott's perspective, waiting for challenges that face his company to come from the government dents its business and affects its customers. Can't have that.

On the subjects of energy efficiency and cutting even more costs

Although Scott's speech from over two years ago referenced a Wal-Mart future of only using renewable energy and creating zero waste from its operations was repeated this time around, the goal this time -- again -- centered around cost cuts. Is Scott's intention to help the retailer's bottom line or to help the environment? It doesn't matter -- accomplishing one helps the other here.

Scott again staged his comments around the economic truths facing the average Wal-Mart customer: do they fill up those gas tanks or buy food and medicine? If Wal-Mart can strip out enough costs to provide lower prices, then those customers can fill up their gas tanks -- or so Scott's logic goes.

In an age when Chinese suppliers to the world's largest retailer are scoffing at ever-decreasing prices, where are those cost reductions going to come from? Could ecologically-sound "green" investment now pay off in lower costs for the retailer later while it doesn't see vendors dropping out of the picture? Perhaps, perhaps not. Scott did say that "These families now spend an estimated 17% of their monthly income on energy. Somebody has to do something."

Scott went on to say that he's working with many of the retailer's main suppliers of energy-intensive products to re-design those products to use 25% less energy within a three-year timeframe. For those consumer electronics folks, Scott also wants all the flat-panel televisions on the retailer's walls to use 30% less energy by 2010. Seeing as though Wal-Mart is a leading seller of flat-panel televisions, Scott has the clout to ensure this happens, Perhaps he can join up with Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY) CEO Brad Anderson to get this done?

Is Scott for real here?

There is every indication that the retailing world and any other party interested in seeing what the world's largest retailer has to say should accept Scott's words as warning. Although a consumer backlash continues hampering Wal-Mart, the company is not going anywhere soon. It's hard to fathom a $350 billion company just going away overnight. Competitor Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) has a much better marketing message and image and supplies much of the same product -- and it's growing every quarter.

But, if Wal-Mart can strip out even more cost and at least keep the same level of service and merchandising it has now, it'll almost win the discount retail war based on cost efficiency alone.

This Thursday, I will wrap up Scott's comments on ethical sourcing and employee health care from last week's meeting and dive into what is and what could be in those arenas. Until then, have a great week!