Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats • Hacker News Board

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#281

Post by Noos » Sat, Jun 05, 2021, 7:55 AM UTC

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 dont hire full time though, and hours can vary dramatically per week. if you get 12 hours one week and 32 the next, that $15 an hour doesn't help that much. The big problem is we dont do full time work in most retail positions any more apart from the manager and maybe keyholders.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#282

Post by handrous » Sat, Jun 05, 2021, 8:32 AM UTC

Auracle wrote: post #257

syedkarim wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are the prices at Walmart really that much lower than Target? On the limited amount of stuff I buy, it’s not been the case.

I haven’t noticed a difference in most things. Some things are cheaper at Walmart, but they also often have companies make worse versions of products for them just so they can sell them cheaper.

Clothes are notorious for this.

"Wow, [mid-tier jeans brand] is only $16/pair at Wal-Mart, and they're $40 when you find them on sale on [jeans brand]'s web site. What a bargain!"

... but then it turns out they're not the same thing, even if they're made to look very much like they are even down to the labelling, and in fact the manufacturer produces a separate low-end- and outlet-stores version that's much worse than their standard product.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#283

Post by fuzzfactor » Sat, Jun 05, 2021, 8:56 AM UTC

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…

In 1982 Wal-Mart was still exclusively a rural retailer, continuing to build scale but only in towns below a certain size.

It was not felt they could yet compete with more well-funded better-established chains. Most stores more closely resembled today's Dollar General than a big box There were not yet "superstores", and most people in big cities had never heard of them.

With IBM PC's not yet having a significant impact on business, and almost nobody doing any data networking compared to today, Wal-Mart already had a fully computerized POS/inventory/logistics-management system in every store, integrated into their headquarters in small-town Arkansas in almost real-time, with data-mining informing the financial decision making.

No one else had anything close, not Sears, Target, or Kmart, who were obviously going to end up having difficulty when Sam thought the time was right for Wal-Mart to come to the big cities.

Even though all these retailers had the same computer hardware in their respective headquarters, IBM's good old "impersonal" mainframes which only big companies could afford.

Walton would bus all his managers to Bentonville for a pow-wow every year, scheduled to start at 8 all week.

If you got there precisely at 8, you had already missed the most important half-hour with Sam, he would start at 0730.

Drove an old pickup truck too, so he could save money.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#284

Post by grasshopperpurp » Sat, Jun 05, 2021, 9:06 AM UTC

Auracle wrote: post #234

raverbashing wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Self-checkout? Best invention of the 2000's

It’s great when you want to buy a few things. It’s terrible if you have a cart full of things.

This is how I view it. There's a Publix just down the street from my work, and I always use self-checkout there, but when we're shopping for home (full cart), we don't even consider it an option. I don't think Publix checks your cart or anything, so it's not about that. Last time we went shopping, there wasn't a bagger, and we didn't mind, so that's not it either. I think it's just that it's a lot quicker for them to scan your items, and you don't have to pay extra attention to make sure you've scanned everything.

Related, Publix is one of the South's top selling points. It's easily the best grocery store I've used. Up until I moved to Florida and experienced Publix, all grocery stores felt more or less the same.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#285

Post by AmVess » Sat, Jun 05, 2021, 9:15 AM UTC

dimmke wrote: post #214

Spooky23 wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

This is really the problem with everything Walmart has done wrt eCommerce/online pickup IMO - It's like all the pieces are there, but they can't bring them all together. I've hit their website from Google looking for an item, and the lead time to ship is 2+ weeks and it's highlighted that it's sourced from a partner. Putting aside the obvious - it's just a worse deal. For most items, they're competing with 1-2 days,…

2 weeks is exactly how long it took to get an item, and they lost 2 other orders and had appalling customer service. I had to resort to a chargeback in order to get my money back. They couldn't find or bother to find the order in their system.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#286

Post by raverbashing » Sat, Jun 05, 2021, 9:39 AM UTC

cogman10 wrote: post #10

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. Sure, it’s elitist, but people like shopping alongside people in their own stratum. Eh, I think the problem isn't even "lower class" it's "I don't want to shop at a store with a meth lab"[1] How does walmart begin to fix problems like that? IDK. Even Kmart back in the day didn't have that sort of image problem. Heck, other brands like Kroger or albertsons/safeway don't have that problem. It'…

I wonder if/how Asda got out of the "countryside" style of management of Walmart

In other countries their micromanagement made them fail. Like in Germany, where it's the place where it crashed and burned the worse.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#287

Post by dalbasal » Sat, Jun 05, 2021, 9:47 AM UTC

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 gets a lot of flak

In a way, it reminds me of "MSFT is Dead" stuff from circa 2008. Google had taken email by storm, was moving on office and seemed to be making web into their own OS. Windows Vista & IE sucked. Google just seemed so much nimbler. Apple had risen from the dead, and was reinventing consumer electronics. MSFT was looking decrepit, the next IBM.

MSFT never panicked. Software was a great business to be in, and the pressure was never financial. Meanwhile, they maintained their own ways and their own cultural advantages, long term perseverance, reverse compatibility, etc.

They didn't win every race. Google won mobile OS, the "browser war. MSFT's attempts at a search business didn't succeed. They did win enough though, plenty. Google was better at web based software earlier, but MSFT held on to Office/Productivity. Office 365 wasn't as slick as early, but it was/is the product businesses will pay for. Most notably, they beat Google on cloud. Cloud was in Google's wheelhouse, and emphatically not in MSFT's. They started late. Google's "paradigm" mentality was great for the early part of the game. Getting where we are today though, that required carrying old paradigms into the new world. It required lots of mess, details, requirements that don't really make sense... That is MSFT's wheelhouse. Meeting companies where they are. Its a foreign concept to Google.

Today, Google is the one that seems weaker. They're plenty rich, and plenty capable technologically. They aren't very good at building businesses though. It's still all about adwords.

MSFT could have gone the way of IBM.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#288

Post by hahamrfunnyguy » Sat, Jun 05, 2021, 9:52 AM UTC

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,…

It's not an image problem, shopping there is a terrible experience. The stores are always a mess and the employees are unhelpful. There always seems to be long lines at the front end. They do have a good selection of products, but I avoid shopping there whenever I can because it's so unpleasant.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#289

Post by nly » Sat, Jun 05, 2021, 9:57 AM UTC

dalbasal wrote: post #287

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 gets a lot of flak In a way, it reminds me of "MSFT is Dead" stuff from circa 2008. Google had taken email by storm, was moving on office and seemed to be making web into their own OS. Windows Vista & IE sucked. Google just seemed so much nimbler. Apple had risen from the dead, and was reinventing consumer electronics. MSFT was looking decrepit, the next IBM. MSFT never panicked. Software was a great busin…

To be fair a lot of this is because Google can't execute properly.

Office 365 just destroys Google Docs, everything MSFT offer just integrated well, is priced well.

Chrome OS + Android + Docs could have been the productivity Windows PC killer if they'd executed it with vision.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#290

Post by nly » Sat, Jun 05, 2021, 10:05 AM UTC

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…

It is surprising what businesses have managed to keep up with Amazon.

I was amazed last year to find Argos, a traditional bricks and mortar catalogue based outlet here in the UK, now offer a good website and next day delivery to most of the mainland, and at competitive prices.