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Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

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Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#191

Post by BeetleB »

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,…

> 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.

Where I live (a decent sized metro), their stock collection beats all other retail stores in the area. They'll often have SKUs for products I can't find anywhere else. As an example, I have a spray carpet cleaner from what is likely the best selling brand in the country. When it runs out, I want to get a solution refill, not buy a whole new spray. Walmart is the only general purpose store in the city that carries it. All other stores carry just the spray version, which costs about double. Target used to be my go-to place for this kind of stuff, but even they've stopped carrying it.

Their fresh produce sucks, but for everything else, they often have good selection and quality. And with good prices. A few other examples:

- OTC Medicine/supplements: If you're trying to get one of the well known "alternative" brands (e.g. vegetarian tablets), their prices are much cheaper - perhaps half of that in any other local store.

- Perfumes: It's the same perfume as you'd get at Macy's, Nordstrom, etc, but usually at 20-50% off their prices. Reason? They source these perfumes from the Asian market. Perfume manufacturers cannot sell in Asia at the prices they charge in the US, so they sell it cheaper there (again, from all my research, it's the same perfume - not a lower quality one). So Walmart simply "imports" them back in from Asia.

I rarely shop at Wal-mart. It's not near me, and I go there only when I simply can't find what I need at another local store. It certainly has its down sides and legitimate criticisms, but I've begun to appreciate the positives to it.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#192

Post by gruez »

maxtheman wrote: post #177
kevinventullo wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Dividends don't always "hurt". They let one automatically claim profits on a trade, without the hassle of divesting shares.

With trades being commission-free these days, that benefit is negligible. Even with $10 trades (the usual price before commission free trades), and you withdrawing $20k from your retirement account annually, once a month, that works out to a drag of 0.6%. OTOH there's a very real downside to getting paid dividends (and incurring a taxable event) when your income is high (eg. making 400k bay area salary. If it was poured into the stock price instead, you could wait until you retire and get taxed on a lower marginal rate.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#193

Post by random314 »

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…

The top talent they hire, quit within 2 years leaving behind the terrible engineers. Last I heard, the tried to build an A/B testing infrastructure that somehow managed to count clicks backwards. They tried to build an in house cloud platform too and failed miserably.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#194

Post by crowman »

_wp3r wrote: post #84
godot wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Working class shoppers. Sure, it’s elitist, but people like shopping alongside people in their own stratum. Not going to comment on the ethics/politics of it, but if people like shopping alongside people in their own stratum, then they have to accept that they have to pay a premium for it (i.e. shop at Whole Foods). You can't really say "I want to shop at the discount store but I also want only other wealthy people…

To be clear the actual wealthy people always shop at Walmart, because, ya know, they are wealthy because they don't waste money on more expensive groceries because the floors are nicer, and they probably don't mind being around other hard working people. Only half tongue in cheek, and completely agreeing with you.

Almost correct- they get the curbside dropoff and never leave their car. At least, this is what the high (~5MM) net worth family I know does.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#195

Post by jxramos »

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…

There's something to #6. I agree it's pronounced at Walmarts. I've observed the same lack of sensitivity when going to a Costco in a poor side of town vs a more well to do, I've used that repeated experience as an Apples to Apples comparison. The shoppers in the poorer part demonstrate poor personal spatial habits and being oblivious to blocking others or other actions that demonstrate blinders and indifference to being in the presence of other people and general shopping etiquette. Blocking products, aisles, not yielding enough space, not making eye contact when you're about to intersect paths. It's nothing super egregious and extreme but it's noticeable, and I'm sure probably measurable too if one had a body cam and documented situation A vs B over a several trips and itemized all the strange encounters.

If I'm at a Whole Foods, the sensitivity is way at the other extreme of politeness. I wonder if anyone's ever went deep on an analysis of this sort of phenomenon.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#196

Post by strikhedonia »

mc32 wrote: post #68
gwbas1c wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Working class shoppers That doesn't bother me. I'm not so elitist that I need to always be with people who are me same class as me. What's more important is that the people catering to me make a living wage. Or, to put it differently, are comfortable with what they are paid without relying on government assistance? The only kind of stores that I avoid because of the customers are liquor stores where half the driver…

Wal*Mart, contrary to popular belief is paying $15 in many locations (as good as other chains).

They’re paying a mean of $15 an hour. That’s quite different from a minimum of $15 an hour.

Walmart jobs in my fairly HCOL area still start at $12 an hour.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#197

Post by jxramos »

jackson1442 wrote: post #173
pengaru wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of what you're observing is simply a reflection of the area demographics. It's similar to visiting a small town DMV. Your description of gambling machines reminds me of my last visit back home in IL, after they legalized gambling. It's very jarring to walk past locals glued to video slot machines at 9AM in a gas station. It's depressing as hell, I'm sure the walmarts have cashed in on the action too but I didn't…

I don't think it fits quite as tightly in that description. I've been to many many walmarts and exactly one hasn't felt sad. They've installed these gates at the walmart nearest to me that essentially force you to walk through a checkout line even if you don't end up buying anything. Most necessities are locked in cases and I always struggle to find the single employee with the key to any particular case, who then ha…

yep, I've shifted buying such locked up things online for in store pickup. It was totally annoying to have such a drag on time buzzing someone repeatedly to come and unlock. They should actually post a notice on the locked cabinets saying, "avoid the wait, order these products online for instore pickup"

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#198

Post by jxramos »

yumraj wrote: post #37
partiallypro wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

One thing I've noted in general is Costco employees are much younger on average than Walmart employees. I almost never find an old employee at Costco, while at Walmart most of them are old or middle aged.

This is my observation too, I often wondered if Walmart wasn't around what would be these folks alternatives?

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#200

Post by cbozeman »

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,…

> Working class shoppers.

Almost everyone in America is "working class". America no longer has a leisure class to speak of, if we ever had one. Looking at the most recent data - I forget where I saw it - but the wealthiest Americans also put in the most hours at work.

I know a lot of people have brainwashed themselves into thinking they're something they're not, but they're all wrong. If you have to go to work in the morning to maintain your lifestyle, even if you "work" for yourself, you're just a working class stiff like everyone else, you can just afford bigger shit.

If you can decide to just stop what you're doing and go attain spiritual enlightenment for the next 18 months, and literally nothing about your life, your children's lives, your grandchildren's lives, and your great-grandchildren's lives will change - you're not working class.

> Sure, it’s elitist, but people like shopping alongside people in their own stratum.

That doesn't make someone elitist, it just makes them an asshole.

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