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Wal-Mart Stores Inc. revealed the compensation packages for its top exec- utives in April, showing an increase in pay for Chief Executive Officer Doug McMillon and details regarding new U.S. e-commerce chief Marc Lore's financial agreement with the company. McMillon earned $23.4 million in total compensation for fiscal 2017, according to proxy materials filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commis- sion. McMillon's compensation was a 19 percent increase from a year ago when he earned $19.6 million. The compensation included a base salary of $1.28 million, which was a slight increase from a year ago. McMil- lon also received about $22 million in other compensation, including $15.2 million in stock awards and $4.85 million in nonequity incentive plan payment. McMillon's total compensation wasn't the largest listed among Wal-Mart's five named executives. Lore, who joined the company after the acquisition of Jet.com last year, received $243.9 million in total compensation during the fiscal year. Much of the compensation was in stock awards connected to Wal-Mart's $3.3 billion acquisition of Jet.com. Lore, who was the founder and larg- est shareholder and CEO of Jet.com, received 3.5 million shares of restricted stock as part of the acquisition. If not for the restricted shares, Lore's compen- sation package would've been about $7.6 million. According to the proxy, Wal-Mart is obligated to pay Lore about $397 million over a five-year period subsequent to the closing date of the acquisition. "In order to be entitled to these payments, Mr. Lore generally must continue to be employed by Walmart through the various payment dates," the proxy said. "However, if Walmart terminates Mr. Lore's employment with- out cause, or Mr. Lore resigns for good reason, Mr. Lore would continue to be entitled to the remaining payments in accordance with the payment schedule." Wal-Mart reported $485.9 billion in revenue for fiscal 2017, which was an increase from $482.1 billion the previ- ous year. But the company's profits fell 7.2 percent to $13.6 billion, largely because of hefty investments in employ- ees, technology and e-commerce growth. A report by Citi Research shows Wal-Mart is "best positioned" to capital- ize on online grocery among major food retailers. Citi analysts report Wal-Mart's price-cutting strategy helped build market share. Wal-Mart's personal shoppers do three rounds of collecting groceries daily, filling orders for four to eight customers at a time, Ponce said. Items are scanned with a hand-held device to make sure it is the correct product and placed into the order's basket. Items are marked with stickers identifying "fragile," "substitution," "alcohol" and "heavy" as needed. Jun Rasphuomy, e-commerce assistant store manager at the Rogers store, said alcohol sales are dependent on local laws and always require identification at pickup. Tobacco products are not available to be picked up. "When you think grocery pickup, most people think of just groceries," he said in an email. "This is not the case. Things such as fishing rods, basketballs, exercise equipment and air/water filters are available for online grocery pickup." The number of personal shoppers varies by store, but typically range from nine to 30 depending on the day and volume of orders, Rasphuomy said. Martinez said employees are trained to look for the best products, specially in produce and meat departments. "It's about building trust with the customer and that takes dedication. I think we meet that goal," she said. The program improves the store's overall performance, she said, because personal shoppers are looking every day at items across the store. "If the in-store stock is good, I've seen it go from good to excellent," Martinez said. "And customers see that." R a s p h u o my s a i d c o n s i s t e n c y helps build a good reputation. About 90 percent of online grocery shoppers are repeat customers, he said. "If there is an issue, we offer a hassle- free refund/replacement for any bad produce or meat products," he said. Wal-Mart CEO Doug McMillon said earlier this year at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2017 Consumer and Retail Technology Conference the company needs to make customers' worlds simpler. "Technology in particular is being used to get rid of friction, make things simpler and easier, and customers just expect that as a company, you're inno- vating all the time and making things more enjoyable for them," McMillon said. CHRISTIE SWAnSOn CAn BE REACHED AT CSWAnSOn@nWADg.COM OR On TWITTER @nWACHRISTIE. 6 NWA Democrat-Gazette Walmart Shareholders Thursday, June 1, 2017 NWA DemocrAt-GAzette/J.T. WAMPLER Customers park under an awning to pick up groceries at Wal-Mart on Pleasant Grove in Rogers. Pickup v Continued from Page 4 Retailer antes up $23.4 million for CEO ArkANsAs DemocrAt-GAzette See CEO, Page 8