Posted on 02/17/2007 1:06:21 PM PST by Congressman Billybob
Nope, in our household that is not the equivalent of Payton Manning saying after the Superbowl that he’s going to Disney World. It has nothing to do with Disney World. It has everything to do with Sam Walton.
Sam Walton’s creation, WalMart, initially flew below the radar of Wall Street and the national press. It did so in part because of its business model. Beginning in Bentonville, Arkansas, its stores were located in small towns, where no one in his right mind would deliberately locate a chain of stores. And by doing that, and succeeding at that, WalMart created the largest, most successful business in the history of the human race.
But that’s not what I came to talk about. I’m looking at this from the other end of the scale, as a retail customer.
There are two Super WalMarts within easy driving distance of our home. The “Supers” are the newer, larger ones with full grocery departments and pharmacies built in. One is in Clayton, Georgia; the other is in Sylva, North Carolina. Which one we go to depends on whether we intent to buy a tank of gas – NC gas taxes are the highest in the region at 17 cents a gallon – or whether we intent to have lunch during the trip – a Sonic “soda” shop is across the street from the one in Sylva.
We live in a very small town, Highlands, North Carolina, population about 1,000. It has two and a half grocery stores, a couple gas stations, etc.. Everything for sale here has to come up an hour’s drive on winding mountain roads from any direction. Everything here costs more. So we do our occasional shopping here, but “go off the mountain” for major shopping.
That means a trip to Wally-World First, we buy an Atlanta Journal-Constitution for its coupons, and throw the rest away as journalistic trash. Then, we head off to WalMart for a two-cart raid on all its departments. What we do illustrate why Sam Walton was right.
At the beginning of my checkered career, I worked for a company that produced brochures for the Rouse Company, which was then developing the first closed mall shopping centers in the US. At the heart of each brochure was a map showing hundreds of thousands of potential customers within a 20-minute, or 40-minute, drive of the location of the mall. What Sam Walton realized was that folks would come from an even longer distance, and buy even more stuff per trip, if you gave them the opportunity and incentive to do that.
We spend about $500 to $600 a trip. That multiplies out to roughly $6,600 per year. Multiply us by the 100 million Americans who regularly shop at Wally-World, and the key to its billion-dollar success is apparent.
Why do people come to Wally-World? For the same reason that millions of people come to McDonalds. The name on the door is the guarantee you will get a decent product at the lowest possible price. Always. Only in Wally-World, you find not just a handful of products, but tens of thousands of products.
So, why is WalMart under attack in some jurisdictions? The enemies come from two different camps. One is the steadily dwindling union movement which wants to get its hands in the pockets of the most successful business in history. The other enemies are those who neither understand nor respect a free-market economy. They think, against all evidence, that life gets better when the government runs things. WalMart is the primary example that they could not be more wrong.
If WalMart was so bad for communities, why would most communities welcome and appreciate a new WalMart? If WalMart was so bad to its employees, why would people line up around the block for a chance to work there, whenever they open a new store? If WalMart was such a failure for ordinary citizens, why would millions of us be planning our shopping habits around our visits to Wally-World?
Success speaks for itself. Only those who resent success, or seek to mooch off it, falsely deny it.
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About the Author: John Armor is a lawyer specializing in constitutional law, who may again be a candidate for Congress in the 11th District of North Carolina. John_Armor@aya.yale.edu
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I don't like their prices at all, but I can always get exactly what I want at Publix....and I know where they keep it. The last couple years they've had an in-house sushi chef in the meat dept. with fresh goodies.
They also have an outstanding produce dept.....and I think I just talked myself into heading over there later this afternoon to get the ingredients for a major salad.
bttt
In Erie, PA there are 2 Wegman's stores. I sell my farm produce to them and I can tell you they are fabulous to work with. I have tried to sell to our local Wally World, they won't buy. They have everything shipped in from God know where. I'll stay with Wegman's and cater to them!
I have a 37-year old Amazon parrot who prefers to post her "comments" on a liberal newspaper such as that.
(I would never put a Wall Street Journal, New York Post, or Washington Times in her cage out of respect for our few remaining conservative publications)
There were also more manufacturing plants making a greater variety of products in the US. I also remember the "Made in America" signs above merchandise at Wal-Mart.
BUMP
You are fortunate. Here in Panama City, Florida fresh seafood is caught and brought in every day but you will not find it in ANY supermarket in the area. Instead of local oysters, they have oysters brought in from Louisiana and even Washington state.
I mention Washington state because I have a friend there who tells me that their best apples are shipped out of state and are not easily available locally. Same thing is true of our local red snapper catch...it's on ice and on its way to larger markets before the fish stop flipping.
Good point. One of the local WalMarts has a greeter in a wheelchair at the garden center when they don't have the outdoor cash registers manned. He looks like he would otherwise have a career as a panhandler.
A local food store I shop at has the policy of meeting competitor's prices if you show the coupon. I had the unfortunate bad luck to be behind a lady who had a fistful of coupons. The clerk dutifully processed each coupon, and then the lines got longer at all the rest of the stations because our line wasn't moving. The manager didn't get off his sorry butt quick enough to open up another register so soon there were about 30 pissed off customers.
untill 2004 we han ONE real grocery store in the whole county so people had to drive 20-30 miles to shop for anything. in 2004 we got a SuperWally and if they only have 1000(a very modest number)customers a day, 365 days a year, that translates into going on 1,000,000 gals of gas saved a year let alone any number of accidents avoided.
Except in the Walmart parking lot, where SUVs roam free like herds of buffalo. God help you if you own a car.
Their policies are pretty good. But I tried to get a bottle of Tabasco Chipotle Sauce at Wal-Mart last night, and they didn't have it. My neighborhood grocery store does.
My first thought was the Griswold vacation spot. My next thought was the Delta Force training complex. I wish people would use proper names instead of cutesy nicknames, especially if the cutesy nickname is borrowed from something else.
After reading that, I have an urge to go shopping at Walmart.
I haven't been there for over a month, and my project/wish list has been growing. They have some 100w solar panels on sale too...
Bull. They don't have near the amount of cheap chineese stuff that Costco does, and many other stores.
Heck, any more, Cabela's=Chinaworld too.
We have a fairly small grocery store not far the house and they are known for their meat. Word seems to have gotten out about it because they are always swamped with customers in the meat dept.
The bonus effect for me is that the high turn-over rate for their meat assures that it's fresh.
I've had the horrible experience of buying ground beef at a Winn Dixie supermarket and it looked all nice and red on the outside but when I went to use it, it was brown on the inside and had a sour smell to it.
Ever since, I buy just about all of my meat products from the little store with people standing in line to buy them. It's always worth the wait.
Our Wal-Mart used to prepare their meat products in-store, but now everything comes pre-packaged. My understanding is that some of the pre-packaged meats are using carbon monoxide as a preservative. I'll probably get most of my meat at Kroger and the neighborhood store now.
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