Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats • Hacker News Board

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#371

Post by cptskippy » Sun, Jun 06, 2021, 7:25 PM UTC

taurath wrote: post #263

cptskippy wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think Wal*Mart has an image problem. If you know their history then you understand how they got where they are. Walmart grew in the 80s and 90s by planting itself just outside the city limits of small towns across America. They attracted the towns people with low prices and jobs. Their presence eventually shutdown every competing small business in those towns and the former purveyors of those businesses often wou…

Those ghost towns today are still ghost towns. If the suburban massive parking lot megastore is the best the economy has to offer I'm not sure whether the economy should exist that way. Also note - Amazon is doing the exact same thing to any remaining small retailers, squeezing suppliers like crazy and intensifying the brands selling exclusively from overseas (also destroying brand reputations as fakes are absolutely…

I wouldn't say Amazon is doing the exact same as Walmart. Walmart never attacked the long tail of retail, the specialist shops where people talk to the retailer for advice or guidance on purchases. Walmart never offered these products.

That's where Amazon hits, once a customer knows what to buy they can find it on Amazon.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#372

Post by _wp3r » Mon, Jun 07, 2021, 3:47 AM UTC

potta_coffee wrote: post #269

_wp3r wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So to be clear you are not an elitist, but you don't shop at the lower cost store, because the greeter was having a bad day and was not nice enough to you and should have known what class you are and should have shown more reverence?.

Repetitively running into grumpy people in a particular place, and choosing to avoid that, is hardly elitism. You're choosing to interpret my statements in the least charitable way possible.

I apologize for using your comment in an attempt to narrate a more pejorative point about individuals and brands using service and experience and price to passively class separate. Not that I have a problem targeting a market, just with not being forthright about it.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#373

Post by bencollier49 » Tue, Jun 08, 2021, 2:03 PM UTC

rubicon33 wrote: post #352

bencollier49 wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is interesting. Normally people say "innumerable" in a sentence like this, meaning "too many to count", but in this case there's a malapropism which literally reverses the meaning whilst keeping the sense of the original almost intact.

Hah, that is interesting. I think I make that mistake because I'm a software developer an enums are a thing so my brain mixes up innumerable with enumerable.

I guess it's perfectly cromulent in the sentence as well.

Re: Leaked Walmart memo reveals competitive threats

#374

Post by HeyLaughingBoy » Tue, Jun 08, 2021, 6:24 PM UTC

Scoundreller wrote: post #364

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess the Walmarts near me are different. I just scan stuff and I can either bag it on the platform or put it straight into my cart. The portable barcode scanner means I don't need to take the 50lb bag of dog food out of the cart either. There's no special aisle to exit, you just leave the regular way.

The special aisle is for this system where you scan items as you take them off the shelf. Checkout-as-you-go instead of filling your cart and checking out at the end.

Now that would be cool. I can't wait until they have it around here.