Posted on 11/12/2014 5:36:14 PM PST by SkyPilot
Wal-Mart stores Inc issued an "urgent agenda" memo to its store managers across the United States last month, laying out guidelines to boost sales of "chilled and fresh" food, the New York Times reported.
The memo, marked "highly sensitive", asks Wal-Mart marketing managers to make sure they discount aging meat and baked goods to maximize chances of selling them before their expiration dates, according to the report.
Wal-Mart, which has posted six straight quarters of flat or declining same-store sales growth, has been battling a stronger dollar and a reduction in U.S. food stamp benefits, which has eaten into the budget of the retailer's core customer base.
The Times said the memo calls for comprehensive markdowns across 32 departments, asks stores to find creative ways to sell clearance items and to keep "complete records of daily throws" of meat and poultry.
(Excerpt) Read more at ca.news.yahoo.com ...
By gum you’re right! And it’s 20% off Friday thru Sunday here. Thanks for the heads up, though I expect all will be gone by the time I get there.
Does anyone have a link to an article explaining the “reduction in U.S. food stamp benefits?”
I’ve not heard of ANY reduction in food stamp benefits...just the opposite...that the number continues to increase. Thanks to 0bola. Here’s an article from 2013, with stats, and I don’t think they’ve gone down. Nice try, Walmart.
http://dailycaller.com/2013/06/09/record-23116441-households-on-food-stamps/
Ansel, I don't know what the hell has gotten into you lately. You used to be a civil person and a good conversationalist. Lately, you're just a sharp tongue looking to slice someone.
Later.
Depends. Some of the food is great. Some of it isn’t. It is all private label. They have no ‘name brands’ per say. All but a few items are made specifically for them. Many of the products are the same as the store brands at any large grocery chain. Quite a bit of their products are also from Germany, particularly their chocolates.
I have been in food manufacturers and watched the exact same products come off the exact same line and go into two different packages. One a national Name Brand and the other a store brand. They where exactly the same.
Aldi’s is a monster Private Company. It has over 9,000 stores in more than 15 countries world wide including Australia and the U.S. They also own Trader Joe’s Stores.
It is supposed to be very well run. They are very bare bones. Up until a few years ago it was cash or check only, no debit cards. Of course they take EBT. Now they have an exclusive deal with Discover card. So at least you can use some plastic if you find a can’t pass up deal in the closeout section.
Great chart. Shows the savings.
Yep, that's our experience with the products Aldi's carries. Some are easily equal to high dollar name brands, and some are just...yuck.
I had my wife quit buying their 'Ritz' crackers. They're bloody awful, compared to the original. We probably wasted a couple of boxes before my wife got the hint.
It's a bit hit and miss, but we're getting to know what Aldi's stuff we like.
There has been no general increase in SNAP benefits in my state.
Lol, 5 boys will eat the world:) They have great chocolates dirt cheap.
No, it isn't. Federal SNAP money is, of course, federal. But states are free to set up their own "food stamp" programs out of their own budgets. Mine does. But a person who gets federal benefits is ineligible for the state program.
Come on, this was a nasty and untrue crack “”90% of those shopping in Walmart fit the libdem profile.””.
First you do it to them, and then you did it to me.
I think Wal-Mart went too far in trying to also be a grocery store, especially with competition like Kroger. The grocery business is very competitive, and unless you fully commit to it, you are asking to be punished.
Kroger is a composite of 42 different store chains, and while they do branch into dry goods, their core is definitely groceries.
It would help if once in a blue moon Walmart put something on sale.
For groceries, I stick to Kroger(sales and 20-30% per gallon discounts on gas) and Publix(great BOGOs).
I take that back: maximum benefits for a family of 4 increased by $17 on October 1. Whoop-de-doo.
Sorry...but you are not entirely correct. Meat packers may sell to both Walmart and Krogers, but it is not the same quality.
In many cases Walmart will use a no roll beef ( ungraded) product and Krogers uses choice or select. If you look at pork you will find much of what Walmart uses is pumped with salt solution, soy etc.
Both Walmart and Kroger stores have gone to centralized cutting and a lot of the meat you see at a store was not cut at the store.
I would not buy ‘fresh’ meat at Walmart unless it was the only source available.
The brands and packing houses are the same, and the prices are known to be better than name brand chain grocery stores. The days of a professional butcher in your local supermarket are all but gone.
Walmart beef comes from Tyson or at least did when I saw it being stocked one night. Walmart is the only store in my area 'without' a Butcher on site. It shows. Pork? It can be bought locally and is killed and processed locally. On meats I can go to Ingles and usually get decent prices with better quality and if I want something special the Butcher is there.
For Beef is someone can afford the trip IIRC there is a large packing house in Liberal, Kansas {actual name of town}. Now granted the meat itself may come from just a few processing houses but where it goes from there and how it is cut and handled, temps, etc matters greatly. I've seen meat at Wally I thought about but upon looking at it said no way.
On a side note of how meats can get handled my mom about 50 years ago saw a real eye opener. She was looking for boxes for her sister in law who was moving. This was a grocery chain owned by one man. In the back near the meat dept was a box marked Embalming Fluid {or scientific name} and a local funeral home name on it. No wonder the chicken always smelled rotten being cooked LOL. Chain is gone and owner long dead.
Actually I don’t spend a lot of my food stamps at W-M. Maybe $30-$40 of the $194. Depends on sales and if I can shop out of town.Mostly staples and price matching.
I spend it at a local grocery store, local outlet of a food service and at Kroger and Aldi’s when I go to my doctor appointments. I try to get sale items.
I also don’t buy a lot of junk food.
It’s partly a management problem. I’d been checking intermittently for several weeks for eyeglass cleaning pads - the slot was empty. I finally asked for help and the employee checked her handheld device and found there was a huge box of the things in the back that had never been put on the shelf. She brought them out and restocked but, how many sales did they miss during that time?
Take it right to the store manager. Do not send a letter. Do as much as you can to verify it. If the coffee was a store brand they will want to know about it. They have QC also.
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