Walmart is one the few retail businesses consistently MAKING MONEY because they adopt to the changing economy. Walmart will be around for a LONG time. Walmart doesn't hire UNION workers and gives consumers VALUE for LESS money.
This article is a crock of anti-capitalistic propaganda.
He doesn’t provide enough explanation for why we’ll go back to Mom and Pops if Wal-Mart closes some stores. The model of low prices and one-stop shopping will remain popular if the products are reliable. Saving money is the prime motivator for most of us, Wal-Mart and other have proved.
Wally will be there to sell stuff cheap that folks don’t want to get online: groceries, cleaning supplies, stuff like that. Big boxes are good for that sorta thing. But not for everything, especially stuff that’s easy to get online like books. Big box bookstores are hurting. But Wally’ll be around. It’s growth’ll likely slow unless it can reinvent the wheel, but I don’t think it’s going anywhere. IMHO :)
“One of the main problems Wal-Mart has had in recent years is where else to grow. They saturated most every market in the country along with all the other big box retailers. Their solution has been to build more stores in clusters around existing stores.”
No there is no “saturation”. Clearly this individual has NO IDEA the market research that goes into where to uild a store. This is Businsess 101. Discretionary income, buying habits and customer profiles are purchased by Walmart and other retail stores to determine placement of a new store.
Walmart is also more closely aligning IN STORE merchandise to the AREA they put the store in. If it is a HISPANIC area they will have more products that CATER TO HISPANICS. Walmart has definitely fine tuned their merchandise even further to WHO LIVES IN THE AREA. It’s not a mass buyind decision allotated all of the country.
Walmart is also upping it’s product line to cater to the upper middle and upper class in areas where it makes sense. It’s WORKING TOO!
Clearly this blog ow whatever he is has NO CLUE on what Walmart is up to as it INCREASES and SURGES AHEAD of other retailers.
Wal-Mart will not fold, but they certainly will have to close some stores. It’s like Starbucks and Krispy Creme; too much saturation too soon.
I expect they’ll close down some stores and downsize during these times, but they’re not going to go under and fold; no way, no how.
Like it or not Wal-Mart is here to stay. They might close some stores but they'll open others.
Walmart has closed a lot of stores over the years, and dumped the staff when they do so.
This article doesn’t make much sense to me. Granted they may close a few stores in a bad economy, but people are still going to seek out their stores to save money. In a lousy economy people aren’t going to pay premium prices in mom and pops, that is the last thing they will do.
In the darkness with a great bundle of grief
the people march.
In the night, and overhead a shovel of stars for
keeps, the people march:
"Where to? what next?"
Hate to break it to you but big box retailers survived the Great Depression of the 30’s and will survive this current nightmare unless the entire economy collapses.
You better hope they do.
Unless you want to learn how to sew...and make all your own clothes.
Few things last forever. I do not know what will cause the downfall of the big box stores, but they will eventually fail.
Sam Walton went against the trend when he began Wal-Mart. Somewhere out there is another Sam Walton with a great idea. That new idea will push the big box stores aside.
There’s a big difference between saturation and failure. Wal-Mart may not build as many new stores, but the chain isn’t going anywhere.
I’m sorry, I can’t get past the misuse of the word ‘it’s’ in the title:
Wal-Mart, Big Box Retailing And It Is Inevitable Demise.
Please...It’s “its”!!!
Well, DUH!!!!!
The reason is the smarter paperwork-savvy leeches from urban areas have figured out how to access Section 8 housing, richer county EBT services, etc.
It's a chasing game - leeches follow affluence and abundance - and then destroy it. Regardless, overall WalMart will not be diminished if it follows its formula. It makes sense to close stores when a high percentage of your business are EBT'ers; they don't by high-end, higher profit items (if, of course you don't count the 60" widescreens around April when they get their EIC. refunds).... So, if they close one store and open a new one, for example in the county where I live (besieged by upper income flighters from EBT counties). Profit is still profit.
How do you have a radius measured in square miles?
Truly silly article. The basic claim is that in the future Walmart will be unable to expand as fast as it has in the past. This is obviously true.
He then expands on this to claim this means they will immediately begin closing stores and losing money.
Unless I’m confused, building and opening new stores is expensive. If the pace of store openings slows and sales per store remain at the same level, net profits should go up, not down.
At some point increase in gross sales will slow, which is so obvious it shouldn’t be necessary to even point it out. No compound growth can go on forever.
This will affect the stock price, as investors are usually looking for future growth potential. But it shouldn’t actually affect ROI or net profits much.
BTW, it was widely forecast WM would lose market share after Sam died. Instead it entered the period of its greatest growth.
If only our Congress critters were half as well attuned to the needs of their constituents.
If you’ve ever been a supplier of Wal*Mart, then you will KNOW the demise is coming. All they want is “less price, less price” ... the suppliers get a close to the profit margin as they can, giving up profits to stay a supplier. The “candy” (cocaine) of this is that Wal*Mart is huge, so your sales go through the roof. But your margins fall to nothing .. and when they are at “nothing” then you are asked to reduce your price again “or else.” At this point, you cannot reduce your price more, or you are selling at a loss, or you “give up” Wal*Mart as a customer ... which you cannot do because of all the people you’ve hired, etc. Its a no-win situation. Look at how many companies have gone bankrupt dealing with Wal*Mart (Winchester). In the end you cannot just keep decreasing your price because when profit becomes zero, you are out of business. I’d love to see a list of Wal*Mart “suppliers” who are in Chapter 7 right now. US suppliers couldn’t handle this so the “Made in America” (Sam Walton) motto switched to “Made in China”. And now China’s suppliers are seeing the same problem. “Cutting price” all the time, even though it is couched in “better efficiency, etc” is an eventual loser. When there is no more price to cut, you are no different than your competitors ... and not able to be the “low priced” leader any more, you lose your marketing position. (Flame me if you want, but I’ve BEEN there, you haven’t!).
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