With Wal-Mart Stores' (NYSE: WMT) annual shareholder meeting coming up on June 1st, wouldn't we all like to be there? From the showmanship and grandstanding that Wal-Mart likes to put on to dissing shareholder requests without a modicum of thought (or so it seems), this time more pressing matters should be in focus: where have Wal-Mart sales gone and why is Lee Scott taking home millions while WMT investors have seen little movement in the stock price in half a decade?
The black helicopters will most certainly be in play (watch out for dark sunglasses) inside the shareholder meeting, and tactics straight out of Mission Impossible will be used to make sure any unrest is quelled and the crowd remains passive. Wal-Mart's security apparatus is headed by Kenneth Senser, a onetime senior FBI and CIA official, so expect state-of-the-art surveillance techniques -- at a public company's shareholder meeting. Could there be a clearer picture of "we trust nobody?"
With all the security (Bruce Gabbard), executive (Tom Coughlin) and PR (Julie Roehm) scandals and black eyes, Wal-Mart's growth rate stumbled in 2006 even as revenues rose to a new record (though profits just inched up). The company's international plans are in flux right now and the company's common stock has not beaten the S&P 500 since 2003. Only if you've been long on WMT for more than 10 years have you done well. Do you think there will be quite a few happenings come June 1st? I think so.
The black helicopters will most certainly be in play (watch out for dark sunglasses) inside the shareholder meeting, and tactics straight out of Mission Impossible will be used to make sure any unrest is quelled and the crowd remains passive. Wal-Mart's security apparatus is headed by Kenneth Senser, a onetime senior FBI and CIA official, so expect state-of-the-art surveillance techniques -- at a public company's shareholder meeting. Could there be a clearer picture of "we trust nobody?"
With all the security (Bruce Gabbard), executive (Tom Coughlin) and PR (Julie Roehm) scandals and black eyes, Wal-Mart's growth rate stumbled in 2006 even as revenues rose to a new record (though profits just inched up). The company's international plans are in flux right now and the company's common stock has not beaten the S&P 500 since 2003. Only if you've been long on WMT for more than 10 years have you done well. Do you think there will be quite a few happenings come June 1st? I think so.
In an episode that Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott most likely wants to put behind the company, former #2 at Wal-Mart, Thomas Coughlin, will be 
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