| Gwendolyn Kelly is a city woman. A native of the Gary, Indiana area, Kelly moved to Madison with one foot in Gary, to run American Family Insurance's multicultural advertising program. The lure of a great job lured Kelly out of the big city. In 2006, Kelly moved to Bentonville, AK with a population of 32,000 people nestled in the Ozark Mountains in northwestern Arkansas. It must have been the lure of a great job once more. Kelly is now a senior marketing manager for African American initiatives with Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer. Kelly was in Madison November 6 to help open the new Wal-Mart Supercenter in Monona. "This is the fifth largest Wal-Mart in the U.S.," Kelly exclaimed as she stood in the midst of the 227,000 square foot store. "Dane County is really, really fortunate to have such a beautiful store in the market. If you can't find it in the store, I recommend that you go to Wal-Mart.com. What you are going to find here are wonderful products. We have a full grocery store here. It even has a sushi bar and a wonderful selection of meats. Our apparel selection is wonderful. You'll find wonderful toys for the children. With the Holiday season coming up, Wal-Mart is the place to shop. It's one-stop shopping." As Kelly describes it, she is the internal advocate for the African American customer at Wal-Mart. It is her job to ensure that the shopping experience is a good one for the African American consumer. "We want to make sure that the correct products are available to our customers, such as fresh vegetables or products like greens and smoked meats," Kelly said. "I make sure that in the health and beauty aides section that our customer will be able to find those products such as Soft Sheen. We also have responsibility for the external communication to the customer. When you see a Wal-Mart commercial, for example, on BET or in Ebony magazine that has the ad for a target audience -- in this case African Americans -- that communication is relevant as well as resonates with that customer. We also have oversight on that as well." Kelly is very excited about her job because the purview she plays a bigger role in determining the final product and how it interfaces with the African American community than she did at American Family. "I love my job because I'm not only interfacing with my peers who are in marketing, but I am also a part of a cross-functional team," Kelly said. "I'll give you an example. Several months ago, when I first got to Wal-Mart, I was part of a cross-functional team that was looking at the opening for a new store that was going into an area in Georgia that was highly African American. So we had people from real estate, merchandizing, and the office of diversity. We met on a bi-weekly basis to talk about how this store was going to be built, what that store needed differently to serve the community differently as opposed to if it had been in another area of the city. It was really a lot of fun and it was great to learn how Wal-Mart works to really serve its customers as well as it can." But while Kelly truly loves her job, she has to admit that she does miss Madison. "I have my friends here," Kelly said. "Madison is truly a jewel unto itself. It's a very special place. And yes, I am homesick." Now if only Wal-Mart would move its corporate offices to Madison ... |
| Wal-Mart opens Supercenter in Monona An African American touch by Jonathan Gramling |
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| Gwendolyn Kelly (l), senior marketing manager for Wal-Mart and Chad Wyman, the new Supercenter's manager. Kelly came to Madison for the store's grand opening. |