Posted on 03/19/2010 8:16:19 PM PDT by STARWISE
Wal-Mart Stores Inc will cut food prices and mount a new ad campaign over the next six weeks, a threat to other U.S. grocers that sent an industry shares index down more than 2 percent on Friday.
A Morgan Stanley analyst first reported the world's largest retailer's plan, calling it a major setback for other U.S. grocers, and the company confirmed the promotions in an email.
"While this helps address Walmart's traffic woes, we view this as a major setback for the grocery stocks, which have been rallying on hopes of a return to more rational pricing," Morgan Stanley analyst Mark Wiltamuth wrote in a note on Friday.
The Standard & Poor's Food Retail Sub-Industry Index closed down 2.2 percent.
Walmart has used aggressive pricing in grocery and other units to bring shoppers into its stores. The grocery business is particularly pressured by such pricing, as its profit margins are already low.
Investors in Walmart have been concerned about signs that shoppers who gravitated to its stores during the worst of the recession -- boosting sales and profits -- are returning to rivals. Traffic fell in Walmart's U.S. stores during its fourth quarter, despite the holiday season, when shopping is at its peak.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
I would support that decision, but I don’t know how to create the inescapable scenario of you being forced to shop at Walmart.
Perhaps I could copy the methods of those leftists and elitist people that have succeeded in keeping Super Walmarts out of San Diego for all these years and forcing me to shop at the stores that they allow me to shop at.
You can't beat 'em - or even come close - on most canned food items, paper goods, etc.
Wally's truly a mixed bag. You save on one aisle, and get hosed on the next.
Me no like commie appeasers. WM appeases both domestic commies and foreign ones.
Protip: if the package says, “MADE IN CHINA,” don’t buy it.
If my Tabasco sauce was not made in Peking, like God said it should be, then I don’t pay the 98 cents that Wal-Mart charges instead of the $2.28 that Albertsons does.
Yup.
Stopped shopping there for food long ago.
The local Martins Supermarket beats the snot outta them for prices, quality, cleanliness *and* selection.
*
Interesting....we've always loved our tiny neighborhood ACE hardware. Ten years ago, a Home Depot opened and, of course, a Lowes opened shortly thereafter.....we continued our hardware shopping (very minimal) at ACE, and asked the owner how he was faring; he told us that he was doing just fine, by doing the "niche" thing...........for instance, NONE of the big boys sell metal trash cans or even rain gutters (desert - infrequent rain) around here - ACE does. They're still our first stop.
Notice to Parents when buying Easter Candy:
A well known candy manufacturer from Chicago sold out and now candy is being made in third world countries. Look at the back of the bag it you will see where it’s manufactured. Hint: they make a lot of jelly beans!
I switched from Iams to the Costco dog and cat food. They are excellent quality, with meat the first ingredient and meat products the second. It costs substantially less, as well.
I will admit this: Wal-Mart has lost my dog-treat business. (I think) it’s sourcing went from Mexico to China. I found some made-in-Brazil rawhide chews at a Superstore (those things are friggin’ amazing), but the dogs didn’t like them.
Yes - everything I bought at Wal-Mart yesterday was higher than it had been 2-3 weeks ago. In a couple cases, much higher.
Where is the (Walmart) Great Value brand manufactured?
In: Business and Finance
###
Great Value is not manufactured in one place by one company. It is manufactured by a variety of different companies. Great Value is a “house” or store brand owned by Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart takes bids from different companies to make great value products. The companies with the lowest bids get the contract to make the products. So one company might get the contract to make great value dryer sheets and another might get the contract to make great value light bulbs while another gets the contract for great value milk.
ConAgra which produces such brand names as Swiss Miss, Van Camps, Hunts, etc. also makes some of Wal-Mart’s Great Value products. So in reality store brands are made by the same companies that make name brands.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Where_is_the_great_value_brand_manufactured
~ ~ ~ ~
Who makes Wal-Mart generic brands “Great Value.”?
Fruit is from Del Monte, Coffee from Sara Lee, and soda from Cotts in Canada who makes every generic stores brand, ConAgra packs most other foods. That company packages Libby’s, Dennison’s, Healthy Choice, Fleshmans, Roserita, Blue Bonnett. Hunts and so forth. About fifty name brand products in all.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080127203408AAJpKHD
At least you get to buy Wal-Mart produce, those many millions of us that live in places that the left controls like Los Angeles, New York City, San Diego and so on are blocked from having that option.
Think about that, I am not allowed.
Right, we have two grocery stores here and both are non-union. I have witnessed protestors outside of Wal-mart and Ramey’s due to this very fact.
In Bentonville, Arkansas they are making the great value products right here in the USA and yet, some complain about that too.
We are a capitalist nation and enjoy free enterprise so those that want to shop elsewhere should do so and those that do not want to work at Wal-mart should find a job elsewhere.
There is a tiny school here with 300 students and alot of poverty. Wal-mart donated 1,000 dollars to help out during Christmas..this is just ONE of many areas across the nation they have been generous to.
We have 2 Wal-Mart’s in my city and I like their produce and pricing better than every other place other than Sam’s Club. This includes GFS, Aldi’s, Kroger and Houchens.
If you want to see the worst, most expensive produce you should see our Kroger. That place is so bad on just about everything. I normally don’t buy anything there that isn’t on sale. A couple weeks ago I needed to get some jalapenos. Stopping at Wal-Mart can be such a pain so I went into Kroger. They had the worst looking jalapenos I have seen in years and they were way over priced. I decided to just buy some ones in a jar instead.
I get polled once a month by a company that has me rate Walmart and Kroger.
I’ve always given Kroger the higher marks. It will be interesting to note the lower prices for the next survey.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.