Posted on 04/11/2011 7:07:43 AM PDT by rawhide
NEW YORK Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is launching a national TV ad campaign Monday highlighting its renewed focus on low prices and its price match policy in a bid to bring back customers who no longer trust it has the lowest prices.
The campaign bears the slogan "Low Prices. Every Day. On Everything."
"We have lost our customer confidence ... in having the lowest price," said Duncan MacNaughton, chief merchandising officer at Wal-Mart in an interview with The Associated Press.
"Our company is determined to create the best one-stop shopping experience and low prices on the right products backed by a clear, consistent ad match policy," added MacNaughton.
The new commercials come as Wal-Mart's U.S. business is still smarting over the mistakes it made on pricing and merchandising and as it faces increasing price competition from dollar chains and Amazon.com.
The world's largest retailer failed to reverse an almost two-year slide in a key revenue measure in its fourth quarter, which ended in January, after all but promising in November it would do just that.
Last year, Wal-Mart had strayed from its "everyday low prices," the bedrock philosophy of founder and namesake Sam Walton. Late last year it has been again emphasizing low prices across the whole store, instead of heavily promoting selected items.
It has also been adding back thousands of products it had culled in an overzealous bid to clean up stores.
It could take a while to reverse the sales declines
(Excerpt) Read more at ajc.com ...
“We have lost our customer confidence ... in having the lowest price,”
Thats because they don’t. The stores in my area are also quite dirty. The general atmosphere is of going to a very large dollar store. If I wanted that I would go to the dollar store where its even cheaper.
The only reason we go there now is because their pharmacy is cheaper than other places. Those other places are correcting it so we may soon have no reason to shop there.
I have, and always will, favor local mom and pop type businesses. I will pay a little extra for service.
However, at Walmart, the freak show is free.
Here in the South East there is a grocery chain called Publix. Very good customer service and most of their stores are very clean. They beat Walmart on food price and quality.
They also don’t pump their meats full of chemicals and water.
They’d probably have a better shot at getting customers back if they’re dump the Chinese junk and start carrying American made items - they’re large enough that they could help to shift the trend back towards insourcing jobs.
American made might be a little more expensive (but I’m guessing it wouldn’t actually be a lot more so), but it would also be better made. Frankly, what you save buying cheap Chinese-made junk in the short run, you lose in the long run because you have to *keep* buying more of it to replace the stuff that breaks.
Hey Wal-Mart, here’s a free idea.
Howabout you stop selling Chinese junk that breaks on first use or is already broken when you open it.
Also using Janet BIG DYKE Napolitano as a spokes”woman” is not a good thing.
I gave up trying to find items we use at Walmart. They seem to love their generic brands, and mostly, they stink. Lowest price doesn’t help if you can’t find what you need.
I think the biggest problem with our local Walmart is the long checkout lines. There’s very few registers open even at peak times.
I absolutely refuse to buy any food/health products I know comes from China. I will pay more for known quality and safety.
How much is the decline in customers at Wal-Mart due to customers buying less because of the poor economy?
The gross catering to illegals is enough of a reason to shop somewhere else.
They lost me because of their clutter and congestion.
The local Wally worlds have pallets of junk, er, merchandise in the wide aisles deliberately placed there as extra “shelf space”.
I can’t maneuver around the lard asses who want to tavel in both “lanes” of the aisles, so I quit going.
I don’t like having to think and behave like an ant when I’m in a store and that’s what W-M makes me do.
Walmart food prices in my town with 3 other grocery competitors are the second highest. The store that is higher is an ‘employee owned’ small chain of stores. Aldi’s and Save-a-lot have significantly better prices, although their selections are limited mainly to store brands.
In the past, the local Walmart has refused to price-match even items on Walmart.com or at other Walmart stores.
Fair enough on quality, but you must shop at a different Publix when it comes to price. :)
No mention, I see, of correcting the ‘checkout shennanigans’ — if ya carefully check your WalMart receipt, you’ll find that there will always be at least a couple of items that ring-up at a different (oddly enough, always higher) price than the shelf-tag...
(And, insult to injury, if ya catch ‘em at it, you’ll be hung up at the checkout for at least 20 minutes while they ‘check’ - as the people in line behind you form a lynch mob..)
When I go to the Walmart, I see people that I NEVER see anywhere else on earth.
They are really something! It scares me because I look at them and I say to myself, ‘these people vote!!!’
That is Wal-Mart new marketing stragey. Read this about why Wal-Mart is doing this: http://money.blogs.time.com/2011/04/08/why-a-messy-cluttered-store-is-good-for-business/
“Walmart is leading a pack of retailers that are restocking their shelves and cramming in as much merchandise into, within, and between aisles as possible. Call it strategic clutter. Or mess by design. “
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