Wal-Mart: We'll Keep Customers Gained In Recession

Vice Chairman Eduardo Castro-Wright promised shareholders that the company will press for more diversity in its workforce and create more career opportunities for advancement.

"In the year ahead, we will take bold steps. We will not confuse efforts with results," Castro-Wright told cheering shareholders packed into a University of Arkansas arena for the company's annual meeting in Fayetteville, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from its headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. Without offering specifics, Castro-Wright said that the company will do more to help associates, including hourly associates, advance in the workforce and get competitive pay.

Wal-Mart has been one of the few bright spots in retailing as it steals market share and customers away from rivals. But as the nation's biggest private employer, it is under pressure by labor-backed critics to keep improving its workplace practices, though criticism has diminished recently.

Castro-Wright says that 40 percent of regional general managers are "of color." Twenty percent of that group are women.

Still, this year's annual meeting was even more of a celebration than an opportunity to respond to attacks as the company has made efforts to improve its image and business practices with moves to cut waste from operations and to reduce health care costs through its store clinics. It has also benefited enormously as shoppers have switched to cheaper options in a recession.