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Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

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Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#181

Post by dmfb »

Spooky23 wrote: post #138
paxys wrote: post #107

Walmart gets a lot of flak for being old school and allowing Amazon's rise, but they are one of the very few retailers who have actually been able to respond to competitive threats over the last decade or two. Walmart Labs has some great tech and hires top software talent in the industry. They aren't shy about making large acquisitions when needed (like Jet). They have built out their own delivery and logistics netwo…

Walmart has some weird cultural issues that make store operations hard to adapt. It’s a pretty miserable place to work. They hire anyone, turn them out quickly, and have weird work rules for things like gathering in a group. Target’s pickup operation is superior in every dimension. They made the decision to put it front and center, and their employees seem happier. It takes The other issue they have is that their log…

The rules against gathering. in a group are not just weird. It’s a blatant anti-union mechanism.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#182

Post by MiddleEndian »

leesalminen wrote: post #148
MiddleEndian wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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. Macy's has a similarly annoying policy. They deliberately keeping their cash registers unmanned, which they apparently tell their employees is to "avoid intimidating customers" so you have to stand around waiting or seek out an employ…

Once, as a child, I grabbed the phone behind the counter, hit the PA button, and requested a cashier at our section. It worked! Probably wouldn’t go over so well as an adult, though.

Honestly if I'm ever dragged there by someone else I'll try it and report back.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#183

Post by jxramos »

reducesuffering wrote: post #175
barry-cotter wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re just describing how Target and Walmart have different business models, same as CostCo does. There’s a continuum there. Walmart has lower profit margins, lower prices, stocks many more items, has many more options for size rather than all bulk and will hire far lower quality workers. CostCo is at the other end on all of those and Target is intermediate. People really, really care about price.

I’m fairly certain Costco has lower prices and profit margins than Target. So it’s not “on the other end on all of those” with Target being intermediate.

the spectrum seems accurate for the employee pay I think.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#184

Post by opinion-is-bad »

reducesuffering wrote: post #175
barry-cotter wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re just describing how Target and Walmart have different business models, same as CostCo does. There’s a continuum there. Walmart has lower profit margins, lower prices, stocks many more items, has many more options for size rather than all bulk and will hire far lower quality workers. CostCo is at the other end on all of those and Target is intermediate. People really, really care about price.

I’m fairly certain Costco has lower prices and profit margins than Target. So it’s not “on the other end on all of those” with Target being intermediate.

Costco also sells in much larger sizes, so while the price may be lower on a per unit basis, you often pay more overall. It’s a trade not everyone wants, e.g. lack of space to store bulk goods in a small apartment. Costco, Target, Amazon, et al compete on some sort of n-dimensional plane with price, size, shopping experience, brand, etc all play a part. It’s not a line.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#185

Post by toast0 »

kevinventullo wrote: post #157
andreilys wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the last 20 years they’re stock has only gone up 150%.... Yes that’s better than bankruptcy but Walmart is a far cry from a successful old incumbent being able to address new upstarts. Also what makes you say Walmart Labs has great tech and hires top software talent? A quick look on Glassdoor shows the salary is quite low (esp. as it’s based in San Bruno). I know plenty of new grads that are earning much more, eve…

In the last 20 years they’re stock has only gone up 150%.... To be fair, they’ve been paying ~ 2% dividend yield that whole time. Still, if your comp is mostly in stock, those dividend payments hurt versus something like a buyback.

Depends on the stock based compensation; some of them will be adjusted for dividends paid during vesting, and some won't.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#186

Post by sithlord »

yumraj wrote: post #66
partiallypro wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Walmart often has stores in poorer areas than Costco, which is likely why you see the age discrepancy.

Not really, my experience is based on both in the Bay Area, and includes WalMart neighborhood stores. I think it has to do with lot of older people shopping at Walmart so they feel comfortable around others. Don't know.

your experience is literally in the most HCOL city in the United States.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#187

Post by hogFeast »

orhmeh09 wrote: post #82
hogFeast wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ikea is the example I often cite. I am in the UK. Many of their locations are adjacent to motorways, they literally have a warehouse in the store, and all they need to add is a fulfilment network (which, btw, they already have just not large enough to meet demand). Admittedly, the stuff they carry is pretty heavy/expensive...but they are 99% of the way there. Instead, you go on their website, a lot of the stuff on th…

I suspect you could be right about executive profits, but do you have any specific indication that this is what ails IKEA?

Nope, the comment about Ikea is unrelated. Ikea is privately-owned, and my guess is that they just don't want to do online...some privately-owned companies are like that.

The point about exec comp is what I have seen at other publicly-listed physical retailers (i.e. dead format, competitors eating their lunch but they keep opening stores because the comp committee wants EPS growth).

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#188

Post by supertrope »

cogman10 wrote: post #13
Animats wrote: post #4

Instacart is a threat to WalMart? That's a surprise. I had no idea Instacart was that big. I think of them as a gig-economy delivery service that delivers only 80% of what you order. The whole business of sending people to do shopping in retail stores seems a temporary business until the grocery industry gets fulfillment figured out. It's like a throwback to the early days of Internet commerce, when the web site didn…

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."

Grocery stores operate with razor thin margins of 2%. Pickup is more labor intensive and hastily scaled up COVID-19 pickup runs at a -5% profit. It’s better than no sales but is inherently a luxury service in a market with customers who are not willing to pay extra. Even Whole Foods had to find an exit as mainstream and discount grocers started grabbing organic market share.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#189

Post by gruez »

kevinventullo wrote: post #157
andreilys wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the last 20 years they’re stock has only gone up 150%.... Yes that’s better than bankruptcy but Walmart is a far cry from a successful old incumbent being able to address new upstarts. Also what makes you say Walmart Labs has great tech and hires top software talent? A quick look on Glassdoor shows the salary is quite low (esp. as it’s based in San Bruno). I know plenty of new grads that are earning much more, eve…

In the last 20 years they’re stock has only gone up 150%.... To be fair, they’ve been paying ~ 2% dividend yield that whole time. Still, if your comp is mostly in stock, those dividend payments hurt versus something like a buyback.

>To be fair, they’ve been paying ~ 2% dividend yield that whole time.

If you check the total return price, they're actually doing better than the s&p 500.

total return for walmart: 223% (https://ycharts.com/companies/WMT/total_return_price)

total return for S&P 500: 221% (https://ycharts.com/companies/SPY/total_return_price)

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#190

Post by toast0 »

handrous wrote: post #12
mc32 wrote: 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…

> 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.

They're also the only store I know of that shuts down their checkouts at closing time; if you were already in line, too bad, they'll check you out tomorrow. (Of course, a lot of their stores are 24x7)

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