That's not how I read the article. At most, the article--of questionable veracity--indicates that Wal-Mart will give more shelf space to the GV brand at the expense of name brands. Entirely removing name-brand products from their shelves would be tremendously stupid.
Yes, it would be tremendously stupid, and that's what Walmart has done, with a selection of products. :-) ...
Here's the crux of the article, which is what caused it to be written in the first place. The rest of the stuff in the article is just "extra"...
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 McCormicks vanilla, this is the only brand that I use to make my pies. I discovered that Walmart had completely removed McCormicks brand and replaced it with their own brand Great Value. I rely on McCormicks products to prepare many of my meals.
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It would now seem that I am being forces to shop somewhere else. Walmart no longer stock all the brand names that I desire.
And hence, that's why I'm saying that Walmart has now "sent" their customers to competitors of Walmart. Now how smart is that?
Hmm. So the author went to Wal-Mart and couldn't find the McCormick's vanilla, and from this, we are to assume that Wal-Marts across the nation are removing all name-brand products from their shelves? Please. Though, it's true that this is an article from NewsFlavor.com. With its storied history and reputation on the line, it would never print an article that didn't meet its high standards for truthfulness and integrity. So perhaps there is something to this...
On the other hand, while we're comparing anecdotes, I grocery shop every two weeks, and I usually shop Wal-Mart, along with a couple other stores. I've never seen an instance where Wal-Mart has entirely dropped a name brand product in favor of GV products. Of course, at Wal-Mart, store inventory is largely determined by the individual store manager, so this obviously varies from store to store--another reason not to take much stock from this "reporting."