Walmart made two announcements last week that are both timely and welcome. The giant retailer said it intends to hire any honorably discharged veteran in his or her first 12 months off active duty. At the same time that announcement was made, the company also said it was planning to increase the amount of American-made goods it sells.

Both efforts are encouraging, though critics will find issues with each program. As the nation’s largest private employer and a dominant retailer, Walmart can have a major impact and encourage other retailers to follow its lead.

When it comes to veterans, the company said it expects to hire about 100,000 veterans over the next five years. That’s a laudable goal, but given that the company hires about 500,000 people a year and has a 37 percent turnover, the veterans-focused program might be more like a shift in priorities when hiring. Still, it’s good public relations and supports the message heard from President Barack Obama and other political leaders in Washington, D.C., that veterans deserve more support from employers than they are currently getting. Most of these men and women have valuable skills. Many have developed leadership talents in the service, some have technical skills, and all learned the importance of discipline and teamwork in their military careers.

Some critics point to the lower end of Walmart’s pay scale, but not every veteran will be working as a greeter or cashier. Some veterans could land jobs in information technology, logistics for the company, or move quickly to the management track. Those jobs would come with family sustaining salaries.

To encourage employers to hire recently discharged veterans, a group that suffers an unemployment rate higher than the national average, a tax incentive has been approved. But that is unlikely the main motivation. Bill Simon, Walmart’s president and CEO, said he wants his company’s veterans initiative to be copied by other companies, especially retailers. “We could leave an incredible legacy as an industry. We can be the ones who step up for our heroes,” said Simon.

On another jobs front, Walmart said it planned to buy more American-made products. The company said it plans to spend about $5 billion a year adding to the American-made products it sells.

Known for pressuring suppliers to lower prices, Walmart will create some good public relations for itself by selling more domestically made products. But it’s unlikely the company would be moving in that direction if it didn’t make business sense.

It’s possible people will pay a slight premium for American-made products. It’s also true that the cost advantage once enjoyed by making products overseas is shrinking. Rapidly rising wages in much of China is one reason that companies are reversing the off-shoring trends of the past two decades. Another factor is higher transportation costs to ship products across the ocean.

Walmart probably sees good business reasons to hire more veterans and buy and sell more American-made products. It also doesn’t hurt that these two initiatives could overshadow the recent negative news stories involving allegations of bribery in Mexico to get stores built quickly, the tragic garment factory fire in India that killed 100, and the reports that Walmart is the leading seller of guns, including assault-style weapons like the one used in the Sandy Hook Elementary School killings.

Even if Walmart’s latest initiatives bring public relations benefits, that does not negate the positive impact its actions could have for returning veterans and for American workers.

Despite the limitations of the Walmart efforts, they will focus attention and possibly prompt others to take similar actions.