Calexico Walmart's decades-long culture shaped by manager Oscar Romero

Oscar Romero runs the Calexico Walmart Supercenter with a management style built around long relationships and day-to-day presence, a company profile says, and that approach has helped the store keep an unusually tenured workforce. The store employs more than 500 associates, and nearly 200 of them have worked at the location for more than 20 years, according to Walmart’s feature on the store and Romero’s leadership.

Romero’s rise at Walmart began in the fall of 1992. “In the Fall of 1992, 18-year-old Oscar Romero was standing in Walmart’s Christmas tree lot, covered in sweet, sticky tree sap, quietly questioning where his life was headed - and how he was going to get the sap out of his hair,” the profile recounts. The company notes he once tied Christmas trees to cars and still reminds his team that he is “still the same guy who tied Christmas trees to cars in the 90s, minus the sap.” After managing six stores across hubs such as San Diego and Phoenix, Romero returned to Calexico and now leads a team the company describes as a national benchmark.

Walmart’s profile credits Romero with a “servant leadership” philosophy that prioritizes personal connection over rigid hierarchy. The reporting says he “takes notes on his associates' lives, learns their families' names, and treats every interaction as an opportunity to build a bridge.” Romero himself summarized his approach: “It’s about how you show up every day and set the tone,” Romero said. “When you see everything through the lens of a customer and an associate, everything else falls into place.”

The company profile links that people-first culture to performance. The Calexico location was described as one of the top-performing Walmart Supercenters in the United States in 2020 in republished coverage, while other language in the company piece framed the store as Walmart’s top-performing Supercenter. Those recognitions are presented by Walmart’s own account; the exact award language and year are a detail the company can confirm for clarity.

For associates, the store’s culture translates into stability and internal careers. The profile frames Romero as “a fervent believer that the associates have shaped him just as much as he has poured into the culture at Walmart Calexico,” and it emphasizes that Romero values how he cared for associates and the shared community more than accolades. The piece also humanizes Romero: he is a devoted “girl dad” to three daughters, watches Toy Story repeatedly with them, and often walk-and-talks through the aisles to stay connected to employees and customers.

This article is based on a Walmart-authored profile republished with permission; the figures and recognitions quoted are reported by the company. For workers and managers, Calexico’s example suggests that relationship-driven leadership and on-the-floor presence can support long careers in retail. Confirming the store’s awards and tenure numbers through company records would clarify the full scale of the achievement and offer a replicable model for other locations.