PR Trips

ElevenMoms Trip: Day Three

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On our third and final day with Walmart we got to sit in on the company’s Saturday morning meeting. They used to meet each and every Saturday to convene and talk about how the company was doing, but now meet for these meetings once a month.

None of that really interested us though. Let’s be honest and say that we were really there for the celebrities!

Does she look familiar? Yes, it really is the very own Miss Paula Deen. You might not recognize the guy, but he’s someone pretty powerful too. That is the CEO of Walmart, Lee Scott. Paula was there to promote a new cookbook that she is releasing for children called, “My First Cookbook.” She says this cookbook is geared to the younger child, even as young as the age of three, and offers basic cooking tips to get your children in the kitchen. Her plans are to have a cookbook for a little bit older children, then the tween/teen set, and end her series with a cookbook for college students. They reported that Walmart actually held 46% of the sales for her last cookbook so she was really appreciative towards the company for helping her do so well.

She also will be selling her own line of cookware at Walmart. She chose a speckled pattern that reminded her of the kitchen she grew up in and her start in the cooking world. The pans are made with a nonstick surface and she has mixing bowls and accessories that you can buy as well.

Does this guy look familiar to you at all? Oh yes, Harrison Ford also joined the Walmart morning meeting to promote the release of the DVD of the latest Indiana Jones movie. He did a Q&A with the audience and they picked a lot of little boys to ask him questions. All you saw were a sea of little boys with Indiana Jones hats. The questions were things like, “Did you bring your whip?” and from a very mature little boy, “Who was your favorite female co-star?” To which Harrison then replied, “May I ask how old you are.” The little boy grinned and said, “I would rather not say.” Harrison retorted, “You have a lot to learn kid.”

The producer of the movie, Frank Marshall, was also there and talked a little about how exciting it was to come together and work on another project again.

Harrison gave Lee his very own hat and they made sure to get out the staple gun so that it wouldn’t come off. Lee wore this hat the remainder of the day!

Here are a few other celebrities that you just might recognize!

My favorite coupon gals! Erin (Coupon Cravings), Denise (The Centsible Sawyer), Alyssa (Keeping the Kingdom First) & Tara (Deal Seeking Mom).

And here are my favorite frugal gals, which I was so thankful to finally meet in person after all of our email exchanges and reading them for so long. Here I am with Jenn (Frugal Upstate) & Lynnae (Being Frugal).

I was also so excited to have had a bit of a Camp Baby reunion. Collen (Classy Mommy) & Christine (From Dates to Diapers) joined me in our trip for Johnson’s and so we were so thankful to have been able to have another reunion. These girls are the absolute best and I count myself lucky to have such cool friends!

After the meeting, we were hustled downstairs to get some autographs. As a personal note, I have this weird thing where I want to burst into tears when I meet or see someone famous. It is like my mind cannot process it and I have to burst into emotion. I held it together by a hair when we came face to face with Paula. She was so kind and personable, signing autographs and posing for pictures. She never acted like she was rushed or had to move on to anything and just talked to us. Somewhere there is a picture of myself with her floating around among the moms- I just can’t wait to see it. I did get an autograph, which I also almost burst into tears about.

We were so busy with Paula that we missed our autograph opportunity with Harrison. I am sure some people might find that funny, but if you met her, you would know why we were all about Paula that day!

If you can believe it, Lee actually sent us off on our bus, shaking each of our hands and thanking us for our time. Pictured here is one of the top 50 people to know in the tweeting world, Katja from Skimbaco Lifestyle & one of our lovely moms who works with the company providing survey feedback. There have been some promises made that our group will be brought to Walmart again and that they will be using some of us for some compensated projects to help them further.  I was very touched that Lee sent us off and that both the President and the CMO made time to come and talk to us and thank us for our feedback.

Overall, I am just very thankful to have had this opportunity to meet these wonderful women and to have had a glimse into the Walmart corporation. A big thank you to our host, John, for making sure each of us was taken care while we were staying there and anyone on their crew that made this trip possible!