Wal-Mart technology shows it is more than a store BENTONVILLE. Ark (AI’) — Com puter st.r*?*?ns glow in vivid colors in the dimly lit room — matrix*?* of num hers, neon maps of the United States, sprinkler) with patterns of dots "Can you look at your satellite earth station and tell rne how it's going?" a technician at a central console says into a phone Waiting for an answer, he ahsentmind edlv taps a finger on a keyboard, perhaps every four seconds, and a number on the s( reen increases by 30 to 40 with each tap 37.010 37.041 37.075 No, warp speed is not approaching Atoms are not colliding. The readout measures the real-time speed of Wal-Mart charge-card sales this morning, feeding in by satellite link from stores all over the country to the compa ny's headquarters here in the Ozark hills. And what's colliding here are the giant retailer's plain-folks image — central to its sui i ess and its ultrahigb-tis.h elet - Ironies network, which analysts say is almost equally indispensable In the past three years alone, Wal-Mart has spent half of a billion dollars on tin h nologv. CKO David Gloss says "Tnuv've invested heavily in Its hnolo gy. and I think wisely," said Andrew Whinston. director of the Center for Infor mation Systems Management Research at the University of Texas business school in Austin "They have an image of being low-cost, very down-to-earth, rural Behind it all is a very high-tech operation. ' Whinston said "They really don't want to project that image to their customer base " But at Wal-Mart headquarters here, the techno-wizards are proud "We can store roughly three trillion charat ters of information on-line," Mark S« hrnidl, a Wal-Mart vice president for information technology and communica tions, was saying os lie made his way al-mg a corridor of eight-foot-high, bright blue computers in an enormous room surrounding the control i enter Eight times a day. Schmidt said, shout ing over the whir of the cooling system, the computers tally the 1,900-plus Wal Mnrts’ sales, item by item Every tube of I’rell shampoo Every six roll bag of paper towels Every T-shirt As an item is purchased, it immediate ly < an lie reordered Wal-Mart's comput er megabrain sends a never-ending They have an image of being low-cost, very dovm-to-earth, rural. Behind It all Is a very high-tech operation.’ — Andrew Whmston, University of Texas stream of instructions to the discounter's high-tech hands and arms, its satellite monitored truck fleet and its state-of-the art distribution confers. Some 3.000 Wal-Mart vendors can tap into much of this information, in a coop erative. eliminate-! he-middleman arrangement set up by the company's late founder. Sam Walton Computers tucked in the back of each Wal-Mart store and hooked to satellite dishes outside — these are the "earth sta tions” the technician referred to — let store managers jump into the information stream. That way. Schmidt said, "They can say. This promotion we're running down in Albuquerque isn't doing too well But 111 Jac kson. Miss., it's blowing tho doors out.' ” Even department-level workers plug in Anita Watkins, the ladies' wear manager at the Rogers, Ark . Wal-Mart, described using the system to ensure a steady sup ply of a popular product. "A Mickey Mouse T-shirt — we got it last week, and I sold about 24 in two days.” she said. "I called it up on the computer and said, 'Hoy. guys, I need more of these.' " She got them. Fast. Every retailer monitors its inventory, and nowadays most do so at least partly by computer. Wal-Mart goes much fur ther. In 1984. the space shuttle Discovery deployed a satellite that beams much of this information within the Wal-Mart net work from a geostationary orbit 22.300 miles above the equator. Besides keeping track of every sale, ver ifying credit cards in seconds to quicken checkout lines, and handling payroll, Wal-Mart's high-tech network allows for teleconferences between headquarters executives and the stores. CEO Glass used it for a video talk with store staff about a decline this spring in Wal-Mart's perennially rising stock ECONOMY GESSG $5.89/QT $ 17.95/GAL. 20%OFF INTRODUCTORY SPECIAL! I SAVE 20% ON PALL OIL PAINTS Winiori N»wlon Gfumbach*r Rambrartd! 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Sept. 29th $1 (H) High Street $2.(X) Jaranova $3.IX) Pyramid Breakfast $4 IX) Henry Kemp Band Sept. 30th $12.00 Brenda Dickey $1 (X) Virginia Cohen $3.00 Walker Rvan S4 (X) Kudana ™ mi stuff IN THE ODE CLASSIFIEDS