Walmart Inc. (WMT) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

[Audio Gap] community, yourselves, family and friends, neighbors and our Walmart associates. I want you to know that you're on our minds and you're in our hearts. Thank you. I want to extend a special thank you to several people here today. First, thank you to the incredible team, Eugene, at Dollywood Parks & Resorts. Your commitment to this area and to East Tennessee is unwavering, and we really appreciate what you and others are doing here in the partnership. Second, I'd like to thank Matt Underwood, our store manager. We have 318 Walmart associates who live and work here in Newport and for the community at large. Matt, you and your team are helping people meet their most basic needs, and you're meeting them with a smile during a difficult time. And you make me so proud to be a Walmart associate, so thank you. I'd also like to thank the Cocke County Mayor, Rob Mathis, Mayor Mathis, Thank you. This is a strong community. Thank you for what you're doing to lead through this very difficult time, and thank you so much for being here today. We're here today to make a special announcement, and it's one we're very proud to make at Newport. And I'd like to welcome my new friend, Eugene Naughton, President of Dollywood Parks and Resorts, to share more. Eugene?

Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Eugene Naughton, and I get the great pleasure to serve as the Park President of the Dollywood Company. I know usually when I'm in front of you, I'm talking about something fun that's happening at Dollywood. And I want you to know we're still open and ready to serve as an escape for everything that's going on. But today, we're here to talk about our friends and our neighbors and what we can do to help them through what's certainly a very, very difficult time. In 2016, Sevier County experienced a terrible wildfire that destroyed homes and took several lives. But the fire helped our community provide and prove how resilient we can be in the face of overwhelming adversity. In a matter of days following those fires, the My People Fund was established and millions of dollars was raised, and we were able to quickly provide those funds directly to the many that were impacted. Just one week ago, thousands of lives, again, were impacted across the East Tennessee, Western North Carolina and points beyond. And while in Sevier County, we were spared the major damage, the lessons we learned from the Smoky Mountains wildfire, those of resilience, those of determination and those of love for others led us to reach out to our neighbors to determine how we could help following the recent flooding. The Mountain Ways Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit already established in the community, and it has turned its efforts and focus on providing the immediate assistance to Hurricane Helene flood victims. And as a community, we're here today to pledge that we're going to do everything we can to support the Mountain Ways Foundation as it's on a path to impact this region in this cleanup process. And now I'm going to want to introduce a lady who I know doesn't need an introduction, and I'm going to welcome Dolly Parton to the stage.

Thank you. Well, hello, Newport. Hello, Eugene. Thank you. Well, first of all, I'll say hi to all the folks behind me because I'll spend more time with the folks in front of me. Anyway, I'm happy to be here, and I'm sure a lot of you wondered where I have been. Everybody is saying, "Where's Dolly?" Well, I've been like everybody else, trying to absorb everything going on, trying to figure out all the best ways to do this because then we had that crazy old Helene, Helene, Helene, you came in here and broke us all apart. Helene, Helene, Helene. But we're all here to mend these broken hearts. And that's what I'm doing here. So I really, really wish that we were all together for another reason, but we all have seen the devastation. I mean who knew in our little part of the country here, where I was born and raised just right down the road, that we would have this kind of devastation. And I look around and I think these are my mountains. These are my valleys. These are my rivers flowing like a stream. These are my people. These mountain colored rainbows. These are my people, and this is my home. And I just want all of you to know that like Eugene was saying, remember when we had the fires, everybody pitched in, tried to do everything that they could. And so I really think that this is a time for me to step up again for all of us to step up and do what we can. And of course, today, I wanted to announce that from myself personally, just for my own bank account, I'm donating $1 million today. But there's a lot to be done, and we're trying to find other ways to even raise more funds, but also with my Dollywood companies and all the people I'm involved with, with Dollywood and Eugene and all of the partners that we have with our Stampede and, of course, the Pirates Voyage and, of course, the Dollywood Foundation. And we've added another $1 million to that $1 million. So we're starting now with a good little hunk. And like I said, we're trying to find other new ways to make money because it's going to take a lot of money, as you know, and it's going to take a long time. There's still so much more to do. So they've written a whole teleprompter up there for me to talk about, but I don't need to say a whole bunch of that stuff because I like to speak from my heart, and I just want you to know that I am totally with you because I am part of you. I love you. And I couldn't believe it coming in. I used to, when we were growing up, Newport was like the place we went to go to the dentist, the closest dentist to us over up in the hauler over in Sevier County. And of course, we come up here to the Bush canning factory to get those dented cans at a discount. And so this really feels like I'm just right at home. So I'm just happy to be here to try to help out. So I just want you to know that this is great. And of course, we got other people that are helping us out, too. And actually, I've been working with Walmart today, and I bet you're wondering why we are in the Walmart parking lot, right? So John Furner, are you somewhere around? There you are. And he is good-looking too. How are you? We were in Arkansas this morning working on some things that we're going to be doing with Walmart, and I know how helpful all of you are to try to help all these wonderful people. And everybody shops at Walmart, so you better be doing something good for us.

We are. We are. And Dolly, thank you for being here. It's really an honor and a privilege that you decided to join us today. Dolly is a true American legend, that's right. And not just for the music, the art, the business, but because of her heart. Dolly's heart is here for these communities and people all over our great country. And with her heart is the reason she decided to make the donation and give back the way she did today, and we are very grateful for you doing that. Now I also want to recognize our associates. [ Allison ] said, we have 318 Walmart associates here in Newport, Tennessee. This is store 678. And Matt, I'm just devastated, and this is just terrible to see what's happened. The storm was not at all what we expected. I've been with Walmart for 31 years. And in 31 years, I've seen a lot of things, but I can't think of anything that I've seen that's just like this. Many of our associates were affected, several of our associates here in Newport lost everything. One of our associates lost his house when the river took his home away. And so what I've also seen over the last 31 years is our associates, they always step up when there's a need. And that's exactly what's happened here, and it's what's going to continue to happen here. Now Dolly, you talked about Walmart parking lots. Walmart parking lots have become a place of hope recently. After the storm passed, we set up teams and we have in over 100 parking lots situations just like this where we have showers, food, clothing, a place to charge your phone, a place to do laundry, and we're going to continue that. We have convoys of Janice over here drove this truck in behind us, and we have convoys all over the Southeast with drivers just like Janice. Janice, thank you. We have convoys all over getting supplies to people right where they need it, and we're so proud of you and all your peers. We couldn't do this without you. And then we're supported on the ground here with organizations like the Salvation Army in Newport, Tennessee; emergency management; the Chattanooga Area Food Bank; Second Harvest of Northeast Tennessee and the Tennessee Baptist Mission. And in cases where our associates have lost their homes, we've helped them by getting them a safe place to have shelter, will help them make up their lost pay. And then there's the Associates in Critical Need Trust, which is designed to help associates recover and apply for monies they can use to rebuild their lives. Now two days ago, we announced a $6 million commitment from Walmart, Sam's Club and the Walmart Foundation, that's $6 million in donations and grants. And today, we are raising that commitment to $10 million. And one grant will go to the East Tennessee Foundation, which is helping people recover in communities right here exactly like this one. And this commitment, it includes a giving campaign at our registers and on Walmart.com, where we'll match donations to the American Red Cross, and we've already matched $2.5 million with that effort. Now at Walmart, we help communities when they're in need and we stick around. We'll be here not until the media leaves, but until we recover. And that's what's going to happen here. We're going to recover. Now my dad was with Walmart for over 20 years. And in 1979, we moved our family to Franklin, Tennessee. And the reason we went to Franklin, that was the Eastern edge of the company. We had only expanded to Nashville. So while I was living in Franklin, I watched and got to be a part of seeing Walmart move into Appalachian to Eastern Tennessee, Western North Carolina, Western South Carolina, Georgia, the places that are affected. So I want you to know that this is personal for me. These are our people, Dolly, as you said, these are my people. These are Walmart people. These are Walmart customers. Thank you so much. We couldn't do this without all of you. We're going to stay with you until we get this all back together. You can count on us. We'll be here for you. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Are you going to talk now?

I'm going to help with some Q&A, if that's okay.

Okay. That's -- are you asking me questions?

No. We've got a couple in the audience that we are going to ask questions, if that's okay.

Okay. That's fine with me. You're going to ask Eugene or me?

Well, you will get to decide, I guess.

Yes. That's all right. We're -- actually, we're proud to have the press here because the more attention we can draw to this cause, the better off it's going to be because I think we've got some of everybody out there. And I'm more than happy to answer any question you want to ask me, and I'm sure you feel the same, right?

Yes, Ma'am.

John, you feel the same? Okay.

And John, you feel the same?

Well, let's get it started. Kyle Grainger, you're joining us from Knoxville WVLT CBS. We'll go to you first.

Dolly, you talked about this being home, even though we're one county over from our home in Sevierville. So talk about how personal this is to you to be able to help the folks over here in Newport.

Well, it's personal because I have a lot of my own relatives that live here. And when we heard about this, it was devastating, not just because it was my family, because all of these people feel like my people. We all feel related, and we are in some sort of way. So it just devastated me just to know that we had to suffer like that. You don't want to see anybody suffering and especially me. So anything that we can do to help, but I was heartbroken like everybody else and just amazed and devastated by it.

Thank you, Kyle. Devarrick Turner, hi, Devarrick, from the News Sentinel here. We'll go to you next.

You just talked about how much you love the Smokies, you love East Tennessee, and these are your people. You talk about growing up here in Newport. What was it like for you? What was the raw reaction when you saw the devastation here in Newport?

Well, the same as it was when we heard about the fires. My first reaction as it is with anyone, you think about your own family because my people live here. And I wanted to know if my family was fine, so we started checking on that. And then when we heard that most of my people were saved from any real damage, any major things, then we started trying to figure out who we knew, what neighbors and who was devastated by this and what we could do to help them, not only just the ones we know personally, but all the people around that we can help. So that's my first reaction was, well, I can't believe it. Yes. Thank you.

Thank you, Devarrick. Jianna Cousin from Good Morning America, I think you had a question for John.

John, I understand that this is close to home for you also. What do Americans need to know about these people and communities being hit so hard by Helene?