Walmart banned alcohol and swearing from Jet's offices — and it was a big mistake

pulse

June 26, 2017 3:56 PM

Walmart sent an outside company into Jet's offices in Hoboken, New Jersey, to remove its liquor stash.

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Walmart banned alcohol from Jet's offices and discouraged its employees from swearing shortly after acquiring the e-commerce startup last September, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The retailer sent an outside company into Jet's offices in Hoboken, New Jersey, to remove its liquor stash, according to The Journal's Sarah Nassauer and Brian Baskin.

Walmart also put an end to Jet's weekly in-office happy hour.

The weekly happy hour was moved to a nearby bar, but employee attendance waned.

"People were not thrilled" about the lost perk, a Jet executive told The Journal.

It appears that the backlash forced Walmart to rethink its policy. A couple of weeks ago, Jet reinstated its weekly happy hours at its offices, according to The Journal's report.

Walmart's advice against swearing was also largely ignored.

"That did not last," Jeannie Slivensky, a marketing manager at Jet, told The Journal.

The culture clash between the two companies highlights some of the inevitable growing pains when a 54-year-old retail behemoth acquires a three-year-old e-commerce company accustomed to many of the employee perks enjoyed by most modern-day tech startups.

But Walmart's decision to bend its rules for Jet shows the company is willing to be flexible when its usual way of doing business isn't working.