t Walmart's head, and David Cheesewright in charge of Walmart International, the multinational firm has begun replacing managers in key positions: Shelley Broader has been made the chief of Walmart operations in the EMEA region (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa). The appointment is being interpreted as something as a statement on the part of Doug McMillon, who is determined to expand the company in the coming years as much as possible. Broader, who has already been selected to run Walmart's Canada activities, officially began as the head of European operations on 1 June, and will have 285,000 employees under the EMEA stewardship. It is understood that she will liaise closely with Cheesewright.
Broader had, before taking charge of Walmart in Canada, had gained years of experience at Hannaford Bros.
In related news, Walmart is to benefit from as dispute between Amazon and Hachette, the publisher of J. K. Rowling, over book prices. The world's biggest retailer has made a point of making it very hard to buy nearly 50,000 titles from the site by purchasing far less stock of print books, by delaying shipping times up to four weeks, and taking away "pre-order" options for Hachette books.
Walmart, not generally regarded as a bastion of literature, seized the opportunity, cutting prices on Hachette titles and announcing the sale with a banner on the homepage of its website, offering both pre-orders and free in-store pickup of Hachette books. It has been working very well: since Friday, Walmart sales of print books (not including e-books), were up 70% since Tuesday.
