Thousands of words have been written about yesterday's Supreme Court ruling in favor of Walmart versus the 1.5 million women employees who sued it charging gender discrimination.
Rather than try to recapitulate what has already been written, we thought it worthy of noting that web traffic encompassing the Walmart name has more than tripled - and that the sentiment is overwhelmingly negative. With the company already reporting slowing same store sales, one is left to wonder whether Walmart's aggressive low-price strategy has become so associated with perceptions of exploititive working conditions that it has created significant negative brand impact.
Previous experience with environmental litigation, which Walmart largely won in the judicial system but lost in the court of public opinion may be replicated in this case. JL
BuzzStudy reports:
"The largest employee class-action lawsuit in U.S. history will not go forward, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, marking a major victory for Wal-Mart stores while frustrating the plaintiffs. We previously posted about the case’s potential impact to the Wal-Mart brand in December, when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to examine the lawsuit alleging pay discrimination against female employees. The suit encompassed more than 1 million women, making it the largest gender bias class action in U.S. history. Wal-Mart, the world’s largest private employer, could have had to pay billions of dollars if found liable of charges that it pays women less than men for the same jobs.
How has the ruling impacted conversations around Wal-Mart? Chatter around online Wal-Mart has nearly tripled its monthly average. The Supreme Court ruling is appearing in nearly 30% of Wal-Mart chatter online, and the conversations are more than 80% negative.
How will this ruling affect both employee and consumer behavior?
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