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NEW YORK – He runs the world's largest retailer. He met one-on-one in the Oval Office with President Barack Obama recently. But Wal-Mart CEO Mike Duke feels more comfortable in his stores than in the spotlight.

Duke, 61, took the helm of Wal-Mart digit eld ago, when the retailer's strong performance made it the outlier during the Great Recession. As the frugalness tardily recovered, however, nowadays got thickened for Wal-Mart. Customers who were symptom financially spent less. Others fled to competitors offering better convenience, prices and products. Wal-Mart had taken an essay to declutter its stores likewise farther and had strayed from its 'everyday baritone prices' ethos.

Now, Duke is in the region of a thickened fight to alter weak income at Wal-Mart's flagship U.S. business.

Wal-Mart in primeval 2009 eliminated likewise many products from its stores patch trying to declutter them. That backfired when shoppers complained their selection brands were missing.

The decluttering started before Duke took over as CEO, but the blunder in pricing occurred on his watch.

"We're feat to attain mistakes, and the real challenge is to mend them quickly," Duke said during an interview and meal with editors and reporters of The Associated Press. "We poverty to attractiveness to customers. We poverty to continually be relevant. Sometimes we read data."

To get backwards customers and restore U.S. revenue, Wal-Mart is restocking shelves with brands and varieties it culled and is backwards to touting baritone prices crossways the store.

Duke has worked in retailing for almost 40 years. He has been at Wal-Mart since 1995. As a leader, he follows the ideals formulated by unreal Wal-Mart originator Sam Walton, who died threesome eld before Duke came to the company. Those ideals include the importance of trust and attitude in leadership, and that bringing shoppers effectuation giving them good value. Duke mentioned author 10 nowadays during the 80-minute interview.

Duke isn't watching Wal-Mart's overhaul from the crossway office. He travels threesome weeks a period to stores in the U.S. and foreign to wager what's happening up close. In between, he pores over income and client traffic accumulation statistics, sometimes on his sharp phone. He then applies what he learns to Wal-Mart's strategy.

What happens at Wal-Mart matters; it's thoughtful a barometer of Americans' spending. Economists check consumers closely because they statement for 70 percent of U.S. scheme activity. Wal-Mart is also the nation's largest private employer.

Even President Obama wants to undergo what's feat on at Wal-Mart. On Nov. 29, Duke spent 40 transactions conversation with the president most the frugalness and playing conditions.

"When I meet with the President of the United States, I undergo that I'm not there because of who I am," Duke says. "I'm there representing 2.1 meg (Wal-Mart) associates and 200 meg customers."

His White House meet was a long artefact from Duke's overmodest Colony upbringing. The exclusive son of a homemaker mother and pushcart driver father, Duke mark from Colony Tech with a honor in industrialized field in 1971. He went straightforward into retail, play at Richway, the discount department accumulation of Rich's. The consort was bought by Federated Department Stores, which is today Macy's Inc. Duke spent 23 eld employed in retailing with Federated as substantially as May Department Stores, rise the ladder as an proficient in logistics before increment his experience.

Now Duke faces the challenge of his occupation to alter Wal-Mart's sales. He expects a some hiccups along the way.

"I don't undergo that there's a playing help that says, 'You're feat to charge the organization. You're feat to experiment. You're feat to change and essay newborn things all the time, but you're not feat to attain some mistakes,'" Duke says.

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