Posted on 02/16/2010 10:01:48 AM PST by Star Traveler
Published by diamondpoet
December 4, 2009
What is Walmart really up to.
Walmart is one of the biggest supermarket chains in the world. As of August 31, 2008, Walmart has as many as 100 food categories:
United States 4,227 total units.
International 3,210 total units
This is a time where families needs to make every penny count, Walmart expansion of it’s Great Value brand is replacing many of the name brands, we have used for so many years.
The new improved Great Value products — which has been appearing on shelves and various sections of the store, is slowly being integrated into Walmart stores across the country, within the past few months – will provide families with affordable and possible high quality groceries. This is some sales jargon that Walmart has come up with, but what is really going on?
Walmart is the company, that is famous for their roll-back slogan, and now it would seem that they are also trying to monopolize the food industry. I am all for savings, but I prefer quality products and good taste. I grew up with many of the brand names and it is what I am accustomed to.
There are a few thing that I could settle for, that is not name brand, but when I was shopping during the Thanksgiving holiday, I was looking for McCormick’s vanilla, this is the only brand that I use to make my pies. I discovered that Walmart had completely removed McCormick’s brand and replaced it with their own brand Great Value. I rely on McCormick’s products to prepare many of my meals.
I tried using substitutes, but there is no comparison to McCormick’s Seasonings. I have never shopped anywhere other than Walmart, because I was comfortable and they basically provided most of my needs.
It would now see that I am being forces to shop somewhere else. Walmart no longer stock all the brand names that I desire. Since Walmart is trying to completely eliminate the middle-man, what type of effect will this have on many of the distributors and will this also have a spiraling effect on the economy as well?
Since so many distributors rely on Walmart’s business, will they not suffer and be forced to downsize? I can’t help but wonder is this really going to benefits the consumers or hurt us even more?
Look up in the main article posted... the lady wrote it about one such product. And then look down the thread at the other article I posted about two other products that got on a news show that Walmart discontinued. There are two more products there.
I’ll give you one example of how Walmart drove me out of their store by eliminating a name-brand product that I was buying before and can no longer buy there now. It was an 80-count kitchen garbage bag by Hefty (and it’s one that the woman of the house wants and not me... so there... LOL..). And I am going to a competitor’s store now to get it. And I didn’t before.
Now, I haven’t quit going to Walmart all together, but I am now getting a few more and additional items from the competitor of Walmart — whereas — I was not doing that before I was forced out of their store — to get this name-brand product.
That’s what is happening at Walmart and it’s happening with many customers.
It starts slow, in the beginning and then it gets bigger and bigger as more and more customers have to go elsewhere, and then finally some customers figure that they’ll give up on Walmart and just get everything at the competitor’s store, since they have to go there anywhere to get several things there that they cannot get at Walmart any longer...
In addition to that, it appears (from what another FReeper said) that Walmart ends up playing some kind of “bargaining game” with suppliers and kicks their products off the shelves as some kind of negotiating tactic. Sometimes a product is going for several months and then shows up again — supposedly after Walmart has “bargained” for a better price, doncha know... :-)
BUT, as I said to that other FReeper, I’m not going to be waiting around for several months while one item and then another item and then another item disappears from the shelves and I can’t get it. No..., I’m going to go to another store — a competitor of Walmart’s and I’m going to start picking up the product that they’ve ended up kicking off the shelves for a few months to “bargain” with the supplier.
As I said, that’s a “two-edged” sword, and apparently Walmart is taking the consumer for granted, and only thinking about the “supplier end” of things as important. Well... the consumer is going to leave to go to another store, a competitor of Walmart’s.
And that’s the big and stupid mistake that Walmart is making right now.
In addition, whether it’s a bargaining thing with a supplier or stupid stockers — I’ve also noticed that several different products that I’ve bought at Walmart can be out of stock for weeks at a time, only to show up again, a number of weeks later. And the tag is still on the shelf and the space is still there, but no product.
I’ve been in this business before and that’s absolutely crazy. You can’t do that to your customers and expect to keep your customers around. In those instances, I’ve had to go to Walmart’s competitors and get those items.
It’s getting to the point where it’s going to be too big of an ordeal for dealing with what Walmart is doing. At this point, I haven’t decided that yet — but if Walmart keeps this up — they’re gonna lose another customer.
Sometimes. I've not had good luck with the house brand soups that are supposed to be the same as campbells. Meat was very tough, and somewhat sparse. I bought some house-brand wheat crackers one time that were supposed to be the same as Triscuits - they weren't. Not horrible, but not nearly as good and the were all puffed up instead of flat like the real ones.
There's no guarantee that you're getting the same brand either. Yes, you may be getting the same product as Del Monte. Or Heinz (yecch - do you really want to support Teresa Heinz-Kerry?). Or maybe something else. And I bet it changes from one batch to another depending on who has the best deal.
I prefer to buy most items by brand, but I usually shop by price. It is rare that I buy non-perishables at their regular price, even at WalMart. That's not to say that I won't buy some house-branded items. Rice is rice. Flour is flour.
Putting their “great value” brand on the shelf next to name-brand products doesn’t bother me. I tend to buy name brand for most items, though not all. Now, if they start pushing the products that I like off the shelves, I will buy them elsewhere.
And that's what Walmart is currently doing. They are pushing off the shelf certain name-brand products that the customers of Walmart have been buying there all along. And all of a sudden -- they're gone.
So, in doing that Walmart has "pushed the customer out of Walmart" and into the arms of a competitor of Walmart in order for that customer to get the product that they've been buying all along at Walmart but can no longer do so.
spices don’t retain their quality for that period of time
This is an argument directly related to name brand items versus generic items sold at Walmart. That means its all about supply and demand. The author is pissed off about not having McCormick's vanilla extract. Well, too bad. Life ain't perfect. Go shop at a store that sells it.
Walmart’s marketing decisions are based on their entire customer base and while that strategy may piss off some folks, most customers are satisfied. Different Walmart stores in different parts of the nation, sell many different items. As I keep telling you. If you don't like what items are being sold or not sold at Walmart --- whether they're brand names or generic --- then go shop somewhere else!
And stop making a mountain out of a mole hill!
.
I hate off/generic-brand oatmeal
I know of one case where a wife buys it - and only the husband eats oatmeal - and he had a quad-bypass - the wife has never even tasted it
Saving a buck by buying cardboard/oatmeal to feed to the only breadwinner is what?
We are not talking poor folks here either
I would set that straight in a heartbeat!
You betcha!
I do a mixture of shopping there — sometimes getting the name brands — sometimes picking up the Great Value items.
It is basically the same food — say mustard as French’s Mustard — manufacturers just change the labels. I think we would be very surprised that when we buy something at WalMart — we are really getting the equivalent of the name brand product.
I talked to a food plant management guy many years ago and he laughed at the idea of different brands of tomato sauce, he pointed out that it is a farm region product delivered by the truck loads and an industrial food plant, he said that they gear up to make and can sauce by massive volumes and that the only thing that changes in the process, is glued on labels.
Well, I’m pretty sure I know who you are talking about. I agree, Quakers oats isn’t like an ‘expensive item’! But, I never heard of the cardboard being in oatmeal. I’m sure she didn’t know that. Can’t remember all the stuff it was in now.
I’m careful about the dogfood I buy, lol.
This is an argument directly related to name brand items versus generic items sold at Walmart.
No... I think you're still not getting it...
For the customer who runs into this problem, as was mentioned in the article, and as was mentioned by me (concerning products that I've had to go elsewhere for), and as was mentioned by the national news publication that I posted here -- is not tied in with some issue of "name-brand vs. generic label/house brand".
You may be making it out that way, but that's not the problem here, you see. And that's why I say you're just not getting it.
Here's the problem -- and you've got to break out of your "mindset" that it's a "house-brand vs. name-label" issue. All you gotta do to think of it in the right terms -- is -- to think of it as what a customer buys... that's all... nothing more than that.
You see... there are customers that go into Walmart that have been buying their certain name-brand products from Walmart for a long time. And all of a sudden -- they don't find it there any longer. They find out that it's not going to be there.
Now, from Walmart's side of things, they may be thinking that they are pushing their generic label and that they don't need to stock any name-brand item for that selected product. But, that's coming from "Walmart's side of things" and their thinking.
The customer is not going into the store, thinking about how to market Walmart no-name label products. That's the last thing on their mind.
All the customer is doing, when they go into the store, is that they've got a list of things that they have gone to the store to buy. That's it!
You've got to be thinking like the "consumer" -- or else, if you're a business, and you don't think like a consumer, you're going to lose the consumer's business... it's that simple.
So, the consumer looks for this name-brand product that Walmart in it's own thinking -- said that they did not need to sell any longer. Well, they didn't consult the consumer on that one... LOL...
He came in there looking for the product that he's been buying all along, because that's what he likes and he's always gotten it (and for whatever other reasons he has, which could be numerous). Now, when it's not there at Walmart and that consumer wants that product -- it ends up that by Walmart making the decision to not carrying that name-brand product any longer and only use their own off-brand product -- Walmart has driven the customer out of Walmart -- and into the hands of Walmart's competitor.
I don't know of any other big retailer who has decided to start eliminating name-brand products (certain selected ones) and only carry their own "off-label product"... actually those other big retailers don't appear to be as stupid as Walmart in that regard -- and good thing, because those consumers who can't find the product that they went into Walmart to get (in the first place) now go to that Walmart competitor's store and get the product that this competitor still keeps on his shelf (along with his no-name generic on the shelf too).
The difference here between Walmart and another Walmart competitor, is that Walmart discontinued that selected name-brand product while the competitor did not. Thus, Walmart drove its own customer directly into the hands of that Walmart competitor.
Now, that's what I call an extremely stupid marketing mistake on Walmart's part... LOL...
I find that Great Value pastas are fine, as are canned no salt added tomatoes are great, which I use to make my homemade marinara.
I tried a box of their corn flakes - not nearly as good as the name brand stuff, but passable.
It is basically the same food — say mustard as French’s Mustard — manufacturers just change the labels. I think we would be very surprised that when we buy something at WalMart — we are really getting the equivalent of the name brand product.
I've been in the business and have been a buyer and have worked with the manufacturers and I've found out that people are not getting the same product. That's not true for all things, across the board, but it's true for enough of them, that you'll find people who say that some generics that they've tried is garbage while others have tried others that are fine.
There are variations in the products and while the food is not spoiled or inedible, it is of lower quality. And people can tell the difference.
Now, talking about this from another angle -- this time as a consumer, which I am also -- and now that you've mentioned the mustard, I can comment on that one.
I've tried the Walmart brand mustard and the name-brand one -- and I'll tell you that there is a difference between them with the name-brand one being better. Now, that's just one particular product and I'm not saying that for the whole generic selection in the entire store. Not at all. But it is true for a significant number.
Another factor is also (for the consumer) -- "Is it good enough?" Sometimes it's not as good -- but -- "it's good enough" for me to save some money. So, consumers can tell that it's not quite "up to par" -- but, "it's good enough" for the money that I'm saving. There's always that factor in there, too.
I tried a box of their corn flakes - not nearly as good as the name brand stuff, but passable.
And what you just said there, is an example of what I said, just up above, that some consumers find that there is a difference and it's not as good -- but -- they say (in some cases) -- "it's good enough for the price difference"...
As I said, there is that factor in there, also.
Haven’t tried their food, but my wife bought a box of “Great Value” Zip-lock clones. No seams at the bottom — put stuff in at the top, it fell out the bottom. She took them back and the manager gave her two boxes of them. One of them had no seams at the bottom, the other had one side open. No mas, no mas...
Yes, I agree. I was just pointing out that in some cases I don’t see a difference, and in other cases, I see a difference. Depends on the food.
Sure they do - they just make after-shave out of it. It's called "Old Spice".
sorry...
Sometimes. I've not had good luck with the house brand soups that are supposed to be the same as campbells. Meat was very tough, and somewhat sparse. I bought some house-brand wheat crackers one time that were supposed to be the same as Triscuits - they weren't. Not horrible, but not nearly as good and the were all puffed up instead of flat like the real ones.c
Absolutely so... I can confirm that, as you say. I've tried them both... the soup and the Triscuits... :-)
It's as you say.
Some people who say that there is no difference between the no-name-brand and he name-brand -- probably have lost their taste buds and/or they have no sense of smell left either... LOL..
And apparently their tongues can't tell different textures... and so on...
I really don't know how some people can say that they're the same...
Yep... it’s not all the same, across the board... it varies...
Yep... that’s how the retailer “saves money” on selling generics, all right... LOL...
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