Remembering Walmart's David Glass
David Glass, former president and CEO of Walmart, died Jan. 9, according to a family announcement made Monday. He was 84.
A giant in retailing, Glass ran Walmart from 1988 to 2000, overseeing a period of tremendous growth for the retailer. When Glass began, the retailer’s annual revenues were $16 billion; when he exited, annual revenues reached $165 billion.
When he started, the company had two Hypermarkets. When he exited, Walmart ran more than 700 supercenters. He grew Walmart stores by more than 200 a year.
"Due to his authentic humility, we think David Glass may be the most under-appreciated CEO in the history of business,” said Walmart president and CEO Doug McMillon. “The choices he made and the results of the company reflect his wisdom, dedication and servant leadership. We will miss him immensely and are eternally grateful."
When inducting Glass into the Private Label Hall of Fame in 2018, Brian Sharoff, president of the Private Label Manufacturers Association said: “Taking the reins as chief executive in 1984 after the company’s founder Sam Walton, David Glass led Walmart through the 1990s. It would be a period when the company, famous for discounts on national brands, would show it could also be a private label powerhouse with its investments and expansion of store brands like Sam’s Choice, Equate and Great Value.”
Indeed, Glass’ accomplishments included pushing Walmart's private brands forward. Bob Anderson, vice president and general manager of private brands at Walmart from 1990 to 2007, much of Glass’ tenure, shared a detailed message with Store Brands about his time with Glass.
Here is an edited filing of his remarks:
“Can you imagine Sam Walton personally asking you to become Walmart’s CEO?
And then, when a legend like Sam Walton passes, that you are asked to carry on his dream of making Walmart not the biggest company, but the best company in retailing?
Well, that's what Mr. Glass faced. And he didn't try to be Sam or act like Sam, he was just David. He was a man of few words that everyone listened to and he was a mentor and a visionary to all of us.
David fought for the company and its associates, but never took credit for the company's success. It wasn't about David. It was about making sure that Walmart was always positioned to grow and be the best. He knew that the company would need a strong Technology division, a distribution network second to none, associates that would keep the customer number one.
But Mr. Glass also had grocery experience — something few at Walmart had at the time. You see, David came to Walmart from Consumer Supermarket, where he learned not only the food part of the business, but the financials. He was a great student and soon would be a great teacher.
When I got to Walmart, the company had four Hypermarkets and six supercenters in the Midwest. We rapidly grew by 200-plus stores a year. And as we did, David quickly saw the need for us to get into self distribution, and it became clear that we would need our own store brand of products.
Mr. Glass called me and asked if I would go with him to one of our supercenters. During the flight, Mr. Glass asked me how we should build and go to market with our store brand. After giving him my thoughts, which fortunately he agreed with, he shared his with me. He, too, wanted to have a brand equal to or better than the national brand, an alternative to the national brands, not one that replaced it.
He wanted the quality to be there, and the numbers as well. We were not going to do private label for the sake of having another brand. Mr. Glass wanted the number of items that we developed to first meet our quality standards and to not get into every category where it didn't make sense or the numbers didn't justify it.
He didn't want to have the name of the brand be Walmart, as he had seen other retailers put their name on everything and risk the brand stand for nothing.
As Great Value grew, I was fortunate enough to travel with and talk with Mr. Glass, memories that I will now treasure. David’s knowledge of the food industry and its pitfalls and opportunities were helpful many times in a company whose roots were embedded in General Merchandising. Mr. Glass knew that offering food products at an everyday low price while not sacrificing quality or customer satisfaction was just the ticket that the customer wanted to have, and that would keep them coming back over and over again.
It was a privilege and honor to be able to know and work for such a brilliant and humble man.
It is not often that someone in this career has the opportunity to be blessed to work for two such brilliant retail leaders as Mr. Walton and Mr. Glass. To me, their love of retailing as a means to make life better for all of us can be seen every day in every store and associate around the world."
For more on the accomplishments of David Glass, see Retail Leader. To nominate someone for the Private Label Hall of Fame, in which Glass is honored, see this nomination form.