Walmart’s $3 billion acquisition of Jet.com last fall was a win for both the e-commerce startup’s investors, who got a big payday, and the discount retailer, which got a robust online platform. But it apparently came with one small caveat--Jet employees would have to stop drinking at the office.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Jet had regular in-office happy hours, as well as at least one kitchen cupboard full of liquor, and employees sometimes drank at their desks. The company is based in Hoboken, New Jersey, a town with a strong drinking culture, and founder Marc Lore runs a vineyard.
But Walmart, headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, has a conservative corporate culture that includes companywide prohibition. After it took over Jet, it cleaned out the liquor cabinets and moved happy hours to nearby bars--a compromise, both companies thought.
Those moves backfired. According to the Journal, Jet executives complained that fewer employees were attending happy hour after it was moved off-site. To its credit, Walmart reversed its stance, allowing happy hour to return to the Jet office and loosening similar restrictions on other recently-acquired startups.
