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Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

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21–30 of 374 posts

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#21
post #7

The biggest thing keeping me from shopping at Walmart is their anti-competitive and predatory behavior and the way they treat their employees and vendors. Nothing else really matters to me regarding Walmart. There's no subscription service that would get me to shop at Walmart more than I do today (which is zero). There's no competitor that could decline in such a way that I would shop at Walmart. I know many in my so…

do you shop at amazon or target?

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Observations about the nearest Wal-Mart: 1) All the employees look sad, all he time. 2) They've obviously carefully tuned their check out staffing so that the lines are always long. This is such a constant that it has to be intentional, and they're doing a good job of it. 3) Sometimes they attempt to check receipts at exit. I don't get that at any other non-membership store. 4) All the shoppers look sad. 5) It's the…

The staff are miserable because the pay is shit, and they’re likely collecting or eligible for welfare. The customers treat them like shit. The shit that happens in and around Walmart’s is soul destroying. If Walmart started treating their staff like Costco we’d see a lot happier staff, and pay less taxes on entitlements.

Yeah, I didn't intend that as a slight against the employees. It's just another thing that makes shopping there unpleasant. I don't expect that employees at a store like that put on a bunch of fake-happiness for my sake, but Wal-Mart's give off strong "I hate this shit" vibes that I don't get other places. I don't blame them (the employees) for it, though.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#23
post #2

I think Wal*Mart has an image problem. I’ve gone into their stores. Their stock assortment isn’t bad compared to the competition. In fact, aside from Whole Foods on the organic/bio side of things, they measure up very well and better compared to their competition. They are more of a hypermart where you can do one stop shopping ala Carrefour. The issues I see are: very drab color palette. Working class shoppers. Sure,…

Observations about the nearest Wal-Mart: 1) All the employees look sad, all he time. 2) They've obviously carefully tuned their check out staffing so that the lines are always long. This is such a constant that it has to be intentional, and they're doing a good job of it. 3) Sometimes they attempt to check receipts at exit. I don't get that at any other non-membership store. 4) All the shoppers look sad. 5) It's the…

Longer lines and things like the occasional light bulb burned out psychologically made people think they were getting a better deal.

The store is just like a Vegas casino, every last thing has been thought out and everything is A/B tested down to a regional and sometimes city basis.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#24
post #7

The biggest thing keeping me from shopping at Walmart is their anti-competitive and predatory behavior and the way they treat their employees and vendors. Nothing else really matters to me regarding Walmart. There's no subscription service that would get me to shop at Walmart more than I do today (which is zero). There's no competitor that could decline in such a way that I would shop at Walmart. I know many in my so…

There are no ethical global multinational companies, sorry to burst your bubble. Every other giant retailer is doing the same to employees, vendors, etc.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#25
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably the best thing about COVID is now all stores here do curbside pickup. I don't understand why it took COVID to make companies realize that "hey, a large part of your clientele don't want to wander your aisles."

>I don't understand why it took COVID to make companies realize that "hey, a large part of your clientele don't want to wander your aisles." Because making shoppers wander the aisles leads them to buy more things than they intended to. There's a reason best-selling items are always placed at eye level.

>Because making shoppers wander the aisles leads them to buy more things than they intended to. There's a reason best-selling items are always placed at eye level.

And the dairy or automotive sections are nowhere near the entrance. They want you to impulse buy some cookies or a $5 DVD on your way to get milk or an oil change.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#26
post #2

I think Wal*Mart has an image problem. I’ve gone into their stores. Their stock assortment isn’t bad compared to the competition. In fact, aside from Whole Foods on the organic/bio side of things, they measure up very well and better compared to their competition. They are more of a hypermart where you can do one stop shopping ala Carrefour. The issues I see are: very drab color palette. Working class shoppers. Sure,…

maybe i'm weird but i actually prefer the vibe at walmart to the pseudo upscale feel of stores like target. at walmart you know what youre getting, theres no pretense that you are there for any other reason than cheap crap. people of all economic backgrounds are all there just to get the best deals.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#27
This kind of thinking is why grocery chains have struggled despite having the deck stacked totally in their favour.

Online retail, much like offline retail, is about physical infrastructure. You still need warehouses with all the product, you still need fulfilment, all online changes is the balance of those factors. The core assets don't change.

I can see how they are losing on branding but losing to Instacart tells you that management lost touch with customers and sat on their laurels.

That being said, I have no doubt that they will vanquish Instacart. And they will likely pressure aspects of Amazon's business too. It isn't actually possible to compete with WMT because they such a dense network already (outside the US, AMZN is going to struggle even more, they weren't aggressive enough in building fulfilment centres and they tried to build fewer, larger centres, Amazon will begin exiting some of these markets in the next five years and sell out to local operators with exiting fulfilment networks, an alternative would be they cede control over fulfilment to local operators and just operate the front-end website...either way, their position outside the US is likely unsustainable).

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#28
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>They could likely address this by having a second more upscale brand. That's kinda what Sam's Club is, though Sam's is competing against Costco

Let me restate that: upscale and hip targeted at middle and upper middle/aspirational in urban and proximate suburban enviros.

Upscale urban areas won't let Walmart even try to build something. Target worked really hard pitching their upscale "City Target" sub-brand to get San Francisco to let them in.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Observations about the nearest Wal-Mart: 1) All the employees look sad, all he time. 2) They've obviously carefully tuned their check out staffing so that the lines are always long. This is such a constant that it has to be intentional, and they're doing a good job of it. 3) Sometimes they attempt to check receipts at exit. I don't get that at any other non-membership store. 4) All the shoppers look sad. 5) It's the…

The staff are miserable because the pay is shit, and they’re likely collecting or eligible for welfare. The customers treat them like shit. The shit that happens in and around Walmart’s is soul destroying. If Walmart started treating their staff like Costco we’d see a lot happier staff, and pay less taxes on entitlements.

The Walmarts around me pay ~$15/hr which isn't much less than Costco.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#30
post #2

I think Wal*Mart has an image problem. I’ve gone into their stores. Their stock assortment isn’t bad compared to the competition. In fact, aside from Whole Foods on the organic/bio side of things, they measure up very well and better compared to their competition. They are more of a hypermart where you can do one stop shopping ala Carrefour. The issues I see are: very drab color palette. Working class shoppers. Sure,…

If your target market is people who want the lowest price, image issues tend not to matter that much (other than perception of being the lowest price option). You were probably never their first choice.
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