Posted on 01/17/2010 10:58:08 AM PST by Captain Peter Blood
Not if they find another market. Not easy I'll grant you, but it beats going belly up :)
BTW, I like Sams Club too.
You do have to careful what you buy in both places.
“BJ’s????”
stick your alphabet soup where the sun doesn’t shine!
During the worst recession in 40 years.
2009 Net profit $13,400
2008 Net Profit $$12,731
2007 Net profit $11,284
Hmmm. I see a pattern here.
Maybe not at yours. Mine are outta stock of things I want a lot more these days. I'm sure that Wally's nickel-and-diming suppliers is part of it in that they're lining up new ones. But I'm also wondering if something else is going on.
It takes a tremendous amount of money to keep these stores open. We have seen several big box stores go out of business or suffer serious declines. They are not immune to the reality of economics.
Any mistake or misjudgment of the market is multiplied with these companies.
“...and you tell me they get that way from NOT selling...”
I don’t see where mewzilla said anything of the sort.
BTW Macy’s filed for bankrupcty in 1992.
True. However, if examined carefully you will often find that Wrangler jeans, for example, from Walmart are not the same as Wrangler jeans from another source.
They will usually have a slight difference in labeling, but the fabric, detailing, etc. are noticeably inferior.
This is because Walmart insists on such low purchase prices that the supplier must often cut quality or lose the massive Walmart account.
Whether doing so is a smart business decision in the long run is a whole other question.
And J&R Mmusic World, New Egg, and the Amazon retailers have all shown that brick and mortar stores are simply unable to be price competative with the online retsil model regarding durable goods.
The target's and Walmarts will have to shift to a focus on perishable and low ticket items.
This is particularly true with buyers who are in their early twenties now. Fifteen to twenty years from now it is going to be a bigger factor.
Interesting you should mention that. Borders (BGP) is a big box book retailer. They’ve recently shuttered most of their small store subsidiary Waldenbooks, which were actually doing better than the big boxes in terms of sales. I’ve been wondering, for those gotta have it now folks, if Borders wouldn’t have been better off closing the superstores and becoming a convenience bookstore chain, at least if they were determined to maintain a bricks-and-mortar retail presence.
“gives consumers VALUE for LESS money”
They give you lower quality products at a cheaper price. Only to someone with low standards or low income is that a bargain. WMs prices on decent products are not lower. I have personally found many products higher priced than other retailers. WM has SOME good products cheaper and those are the products they like to advertise to the world.
The damage WM does to America’s economy as a whole is frightening. When they used to find products in the far corners of our country and give them national distribution, that was an economic powerhouse and great for this country.
Now WM tries to browbeat companies into providing products at prices they cannot provide then run to China and get the product cheaper, thereby causing the American worker to lose their job. You might have gotten a cheaper product for now, but what happens when it is you that loses your job? Is it fair China can produce a product cheaper because they do not have to obey our laws, such as labor laws or environmental laws or tax laws? Isn’t WM cheating by getting around our laws? Of course they are.
How about if your job is not directly affected by WM purchasing? You are still affected because the guy who lost his job was your customer, but not any longer.
And how about those cheap Chinese knockoffs? What are they made of, lead, chemicals we ban from products? Yep. But, hey, you or your child might be dying and you or your neighbor might be out of work, but damned if you didn’t get that drill $5 cheaper! It might wear out in 3 months, but it was cheaper!
Yes, when money is tight people are more apt to accept lower quality and poor customer service.
“Whether doing so is a smart business decision in the long run is a whole other question.”
Probably depends on the brand. By and large the typical customer who buys jeans at Walmart doesn’t realize the inferior quality. If they do they are probably sharp enough to know they can buy the same jeans at higher quality somewhere else.
Of course it takes a lot of money to keep the “big box retailers” in business.
What Ive seen around here, however, is some of “small box” retailers closing down.
EVERY private retail business is having to pull out all the stops to stay afloat in today’s economy. They don’t GET any “bailouts” or “TARP” money.
They survive by hard hard work something Nobama and his socialist pals know NOTHING about.
And they do a good job of bringing us clothing choices at reasonable prices, despite all these challenges.
(I am not specifically talking about Walmart - but more about the other traditional “Big Box Retailers”)
Again, the “big boxers” have the best chance of surviving in this horrible economy - and we all better be hoping they can make it - because, if not, it will be a sign that our economic meltdown has reached epic proportions from which it will be very difficult to recover.
“They are almost never out of stock of an item.”
I found they are. Years ago they were great at keeping inventory. Over the past 5 or so years I have found they suck. There was a certain spray paint I needed, their spray paint shelves were disorganized and they were out of two of the five colors in the 7 stores I went to. Try finding winter windshield blades there. Out of stock, constantly, in every store. Tried to buy some board games this past Christmas there. Out of stock in 4 of the 5 stores I went to. They are not that reliable, no more so than any other retailer.
“Seems to the only things it’s done is given our entreprenuers an excuse. Instead of finding a way to compete, many just throw up their hands and surrender. Instead of using their imaginations, thinking outside the big box as it were, they blame Demon Wally”
BS! When a powerhouse of a buyer does what WM does, there is no way to compete. How can a manufacturer compete with China? Since you are so full of bravado, why don’t you give us your ideas on how to compete. Go ahead, big mouth.
But Macy’s is still open for business.
I work for a company that also filed for bankruptcy some years ago but it is still open for business.
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