What Wal-Mart Knows About Customers
Constance Hays's 2004 New York Times article reports how Wal-Mart uses data on customers' habits. It quotes Linda Dillman, then the retailer's chief information officer, saying that strawberry Pop-Tarts sell at about seven times their normal rate ahead of a hurricane and that beer was the top seller before one. The statements are an executive's account and the article shows no data behind them.
Constance Hays's 2004 New York Times article reports how Wal-Mart uses data on customers' habits. It quotes Linda Dillman, then the retailer's chief information officer, saying that strawberry Pop-Tarts sell at about seven times their normal rate ahead of a hurricane and that beer was the top seller before one. The statements are an executive's account and the article shows no data behind them.
Written from the article read 2026-10-21 in a reposted copy.
What our sources record
Recorded when this source was checked, figures included, with page references and quotation marks removed.
Habits.' The New York Times, 14 November 2004. Dillman's statements read in a reposted copy of the article.