Our customer base is not necessarily a leader, an early adopter.

Where we have been incorrect in what we have done, then I think we have an obligation to settle.

So I think we have an obligation with our size to make sure that we are open to what people have to say to us because the people who criticize us, they're not all mean-spirited.

Many of them are doing it because they are concerned about smart growth.

And the greeter is what sets the tone for this company and I've been on TV a little bit this morning.

Where we're not wrong or where the cost of settling is so much that it is totally disproportionate to the harm or the error that we made, we're not going to settle.

I don't think we'll win every election.

It's hard for us in our stores to be a leader in technology.

In some ways, people forget about average working people, and how they live their lives.

Because the truth is our wages are really competitive and they're good.

More and more, more and more digital, in particular, I think you'll see in our stores next year, as we start combining these digital products and they interface with each other, you'll see that represented in Wal-Mart.

Retailing, it's always true that there is some items that I wish we had a lot more of like the iPod and there is some items I wish we had a lot less of.

If we take care of the customers and associates and grow the business, Wall Street will be pleased.

I expect that our associates will walk with a little more bounce in their step and understand that this company is behind them and has respect for them.

We've got to figure out a way to cause communities to also want them, the political, organized bodies.

Our customer base is not necessarily a leader, an early adopter.

I would guess that any criticism about Wal-Mart could have some element of truth with 1,500,000 people.

One of the things that strikes me is so many of the critics are people whose lifestyle doesn't change when the price of fuel changes, or if they keep a Wal-Mart store out of their area.

I think in some ways we have allowed other people to set the agenda. Other people to define who we are.

But they are also better, our competitors are better because Wal-Mart exists.

Don't say it's because of benefits, because our benefits are good.

We want to set a tone going into our fiscal year that starts Feb. 1, that Wal-Mart Stores is going to be aggressive in taking care of customers, taking care of our associates, communications and merchandising.

You know, we opened a record number of stores last year.

The beauty of this country and what people participate in is the competitive nature that we allow to exist and the fact is that we are better because we have great competitors.

People aren't going to talk about it except me and that is communication and the visits I have personally had in our meetings with our store managers saying if you do these things you will be terminated, period.

I just think that it's maybe fashionable today to try to take individual actions and individual failures and take the broadest possible brush and try to paint a company.

There are going to be some people who never want Wal-Mart. That's OK.

And what I am trying to say to them that through our ads and through our discussions is if you don't want us in your community, that's your choice, but don't say it's because of wages.

Be dramatically willing to focus on the customer at all costs, even at the cost of obsoleting your own stuff.

I never trust an executive who tends to pass the buck. Nor would I want to deal with him as a customer or a supplier.

All business success rests on something labeled a sale, which at least momentarily weds company and customer.

As regards this country, in which protection has always to some extent existed, it is the best customer that England ever had, and our demands upon her grow most steadily and regularly under protection.

You must never actually cheat the customer, even if you can. You must make her happy and satisfied, so she will come back.

The purpose of a business is to create a customer.

If you can't turn yourself into your customer, you probably shouldn't be in the ad writing business at all.

Courteous treatment will make a customer a walking advertisement.

And our size: The company this year is going to be close to $50 billion, so if that's the case and you can continue to grow that fast, I would rather put my energies to solving customer problems and growing our business than worrying about integrating and laying people off.

Statistics suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business.

You have got to have discipline and focus - on the customer and how you run the business.

We will ensure that associates continue to possess unsurpassed product knowledge and maintain their dedication to customer service and respect for their colleagues and for the communities in which they work and live.

Pager companies are very much looking to provide new services to help them regain some of their customer base.

Firms need to ensure that their ability to provide effective customer service keeps pace with their growth. If you're marketing your firm to new customers, you better be able to provide them service when they do business with you.

Even if someone is already in your market space, ask yourself whether you can approach it from a different angle and thereby secure your own customer base.

At a car dealership, the person who sells the car is the hero, and also gets the commission. But if the mechanics don't service that car well, the customer won't return.

This year I hope to introduce legislation that would require Power Administrations to list direct and indirect costs associated with ESA compliance as a line item on customer's power bills.

If you make the customer a promise... make sure you deliver it.

The toughest thing about the power of trust is that it's very difficult to build and very easy to destroy. The essence of trust building is to emphasize the similarities between you and the customer.

The gun dealer is not only paying these two police officers, but more importantly, the gun dealer has said he will never again sell more than one gun to a customer. This is exactly what we're trying to get the gun industry across the country to do.

There is one other business where the customer is always wrong and that's the media.