Power Sellers Unite

Allen87 · Joined: 23 May 2010 Posts: 32

watnext wrote (View Post): › docWrite("quote")
Have you noticed the drastically wider main aisles?

Looks like a drastic reduction in inventory.

(OR...maybe to accommodate larger customers!)

Less "Stuff" & stocking only higher profit items.
Lots of "Fill" or "Fluff" using lower cost store brands

Typical retail strategy when times are getting tough.

I've also noticed pharmacy is frequently out of common meds...like for high BP, or Lipitor.

Less is more!!

It's because Walmart is no longer "about" offering pricing comparison of two or three separate brands. If you want a Toaster, you no longer get to pick between three or four of them with different features. Instead now, you get a choice between a Walmart company owned product, also known as the "budget" one, or a more luxurious one by a different company.

By "Luxurious" - I mean, you get a product whose design was altered by Walmart in such a way as to give Walmart a higher profit margin compared to it's standard model made by the company. You would be surprised how much money a company could save by a slightly thinner metal, smaller screws, more simple components, different packaging, etc. The sale of 900,000 products whose product saves them an average of $2.12 per unit is almost $2 million

Allen87 · Joined: 23 May 2010 Posts: 32

A1TickedOffMan wrote (View Post): › docWrite("quote")
elgato wrote (View Post): › docWrite("quote")Where I work and play we don't have a walmart in the entire COUNTY :D
Local business's flourish and most country folk need not drive into another county to spend their hard-earned dollars. Plus this saves buyers $$ on fuel!

same here.. county will not let walmart in here. They have tried for years, but get shot down each and everytime

Reminds of the Walmart in Oskaloosa, Iowa. The town fought really hard to keep Walmart out. So, Walmart gave them the middle finger and built it right outside of it's town limits. A county may be different.

It's funny driving by the Walmart I just mentioned. You can see that when they built the Walmart, business in the area died, but in Walmarts little location is a thriving mini-economy.

mpearson · Joined: 07 Jul 2009 Posts: 139

Quote: › docWrite("quote")By "Luxurious" - I mean, you get a product whose design was altered by Walmart in such a way as to give Walmart a higher profit margin compared to it's standard model made by the company. You would be surprised how much money a company could save by a slightly thinner metal, smaller screws, more simple components, different packaging, etc. The sale of 900,000 products whose product saves them an average of $2.12 per unit is almost $2 million

What's so bad about this? Quite a few stores offer "their" brand for much less than name brand. Walmart is doing nothing other than what their competition has been doing for decades.

mpearson · Joined: 07 Jul 2009 Posts: 139

Quote: › docWrite("quote")
Reminds of the Walmart in Oskaloosa, Iowa. The town fought really hard to keep Walmart out. So, Walmart gave them the middle finger and built it right outside of it's town limits. A county may be different.

It's funny driving by the Walmart I just mentioned. You can see that when they built the Walmart, business in the area died, but in Walmarts little location is a thriving mini-economy.

And THAT is a GOOD thing. I would have done the same.

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 17236 Location: Texas

Allen87 wrote (View Post): › docWrite("quote")A1TickedOffMan wrote (View Post): › docWrite("quote")
elgato wrote (View Post): › docWrite("quote")Where I work and play we don't have a walmart in the entire COUNTY :D
Local business's flourish and most country folk need not drive into another county to spend their hard-earned dollars. Plus this saves buyers $$ on fuel!

same here.. county will not let walmart in here. They have tried for years, but get shot down each and everytime

Reminds of the Walmart in Oskaloosa, Iowa. The town fought really hard to keep Walmart out. So, Walmart gave them the middle finger and built it right outside of it's town limits. A county may be different.

It's funny driving by the Walmart I just mentioned. You can see that when they built the Walmart, business in the area died, but in Walmarts little location is a thriving mini-economy.

This is common for wal-mart to do when NOT being allowed to build where they wish, They merely market themselves to the neighboring county promising all sorts of benefits and then receive HUGE tax advantages for years. Once the tax breaks expire, wal-mart moves to another neighboring county. I've seen this several times here in Texas. It leaves some smaller communities with a huge vacant building which at times becomes a haven for different sorts of petty crimes.

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 17236 Location: Texas

Tell WalMart You're Gay & You May Be Forced To Wear A Yellow Vest Of Shame"

A temporary Walmart worker is accusing his former supervisors of forcing him to wear a yellow vest after learning of his sexual orientation. The worker, 18-year-old Fernando Gallardo, was quick to compare the retail behemoth to the Nazis in a complaint filed with the Nevada Equal Rights Commission.

“"I was completely ignored and shunned. I had nothing to do all day but wander around the store wearing a yellow vest no one else had to wear, much like Jews had to wear a yellow star of David in Hitler's Germany."”

Walmart claims that it forces people of all creeds to wear yellow vests.

“"It is my understanding that the former associate was a temporary hire while the store is under remodeling," Keene told The Advocate. "Between the 50 or so temporary associates in that store, there is a rotation through the position of 'May I Help You' associate. The several associates in this role wear a vest so customers can identify them and ask for help in finding products that may have been temporarily moved to a new spot."”

Gallardo doesn't buy the excuse, and further claims that store managers offered permanent positions to anyone who would testify that Gallardo voluntarily revealed his sexual orientation. His claims seem all the more plausible in light of the largest class action in history, which alleges that Walmart systemically discriminated against female workers.

more.. link to news article

sciencefare

Wal-Mart Radio Tags To Track Clothing

By MIGUEL BUSTILLO

Apparel supervisor Sonia Barrett uses a handheld scanner to read EPC labels on men's denim
jeans on July 19, while checking inventory at the Walmart Supercenter Store No. 1 in Rogers, Ark.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to roll out sophisticated electronic ID tags to track individual pairs of jeans and underwear, the first step in a system that advocates say better controls inventory but some critics say raises privacy concerns.

Starting next month, the retailer will place removable "smart tags" on individual garments that can be read by a hand-held scanner. Wal-Mart workers will be able to quickly learn, for instance, which size of Wrangler jeans is missing, with the aim of ensuring shelves are optimally stocked and inventory tightly watched. If successful, the radio-frequency ID tags will be rolled out on other products at Wal-Mart's more than 3,750 U.S. stores.

"This ability to wave the wand and have a sense of all the products that are on the floor or in the back room in seconds is something that we feel can really transform our business," said Raul Vazquez, the executive in charge of Wal-Mart stores in the western U.S.

Before now, retailers including Wal-Mart have primarily used RFID tags, which store unique numerical identification codes that can be scanned from a distance, to track pallets of merchandise traveling through their supply chains.

Wal-Mart's broad adoption would be the largest in the world, and proponents predict it would lead other retailers to start using the electronic product codes, which remain costly. Wal-Mart has climbed to the top of the retailing world by continuously squeezing costs out of its operations and then passing on the savings to shoppers at the checkout counter. Its methods are widely adopted by its suppliers and in turn become standard practice at other retail chains.
Journal Community

But the company's latest attempt to use its influence—executives call it the start of a "next-generation Wal-Mart"—has privacy advocates raising questions.

While the tags can be removed from clothing and packages, they can't be turned off, and they are trackable. Some privacy advocates hypothesize that unscrupulous marketers or criminals will be able to drive by consumers' homes and scan their garbage to discover what they have recently bought.

They also worry that retailers will be able to scan customers who carry new types of personal ID cards as they walk through a store, without their knowledge. Several states, including Washington and New York, have begun issuing enhanced driver's licenses that contain radio- frequency tags with unique ID numbers, to make border crossings easier for frequent travelers. Some privacy advocates contend that retailers could theoretically scan people with such licenses as they make purchases, combine the info with their credit card data, and then know the person's identity the next time they stepped into the store.

"There are two things you really don't want to tag, clothing and identity documents, and ironically that's where we are seeing adoption," said Katherine Albrecht, founder of a group called Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering and author of a book called "Spychips" that argues against RFID technology. "The inventory guys may be in the dark about this, but there are a lot of corporate marketers who are interested in tracking people as they walk sales floors."

Smart-tag experts dismiss Big Brother concerns as breathless conjecture, but activists have pressured companies. Ms. Albrecht and others launched a boycott of Benetton Group SpA last decade after an RFID maker announced it was planning to supply the company with 15 million RFID chips.

Benetton later clarified that it was just evaluating the technology and never embedded a single sensor in clothing.

Wal-Mart is demanding that suppliers add the tags to...

Read The Rest From: The Wall Street Journal

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 17236 Location: Texas

more.. link to news article"Turns Out Walmart is Quitely Raising Prices"

Everyday low prices just got a little higher. A JPMorgan Chase study of a Virginia Walmart (hey, it's a big store, you gotta just pick one to do a decent survey of its inventory) found that in the past six weeks the retailer raised prices on overage of 6%, but on some products, as high as 60%.

32oz bottles of Windex shot up 50%, 12 oz box of Quaker oaks went up 65%, and 50oz Tide went up more than 50%.

NYPost says that the changes are a reflection that recently upturned upper-management has recognized that the overly aggressive rock bottom pricing strategy has eaten away at profits.

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 17236 Location: Texas

"Don't Try To Price Match Online Deals at Walmart"

Tony tried to get Walmart to drop its price for a car stereo by getting the store to price-match the item, which he found for much cheaper online. His Idaho Walmart, which Tony says has signs outside declaring it will "match any price," turned him down flat, saying the ad needs to be printed in a newspaper.

He writes:

At my local Walmart in [redacted], Idaho they have signs in the parking lot and big ones in the store calming they will "Match any price". The signs in the store have in small letters at the bottom "with exceptions". Well I want to buy a new radio for my car and I'm impatient so I thought I would take advantage of their offer instead of buying the same radio online. The radio was $50 less online.

I called and asked if they would price match the radio and they said yes they would as long as it was the same model. Sweet! Then they told me I had to bring in a ad from a news paper that has the date on it. I asked what about the signs in the front of the store that say you will match any price? The person quickly said good by and then hung up.

PS. If you would like I could go to the store and get some pictures of the signs.

Sure enough, Walmart policy states the store doesn't match online prices, which makes the presence of those misleading signs all the more alarming. Have you run into similarly specious signs at your Walmart?

more.. link to news article

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 17236 Location: Texas

"Walmart.com tests free shipping to FedEx locations"

Walmart.com is offering free delivery of online orders to FedEx Corp. locations in Los Angeles and Boston, where Wal-mart Stores Inc. operates few stores.

It’s a variant of Walmart.com’s Site to Store service that lets shoppers buy online and pick up in a nearby Wal-Mart store. The new service lets customers in the two test cities pick up orders at selected FedEx Office facilities. FedEx Office is the division of FedEx formerly known as Kinkos that offers shipping and copying services.

Wal-Mart operates two stores in Los Angeles and none in Boston. The retailer began testing the alternate delivery option at 26 Los Angeles FedEx Office locations in June and at 18 in Boston in August. “As always, we continue to test and provide innovative ways to provide more savings for our customers online at Walmart.com,” says a Wal-Mart spokesman.

more.. link to news article

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 17236 Location: Texas

WalMart removes Lead-tainted Toys From Shelves, But Only in California"

Recent tests by the Center for Environmental Health found lead levels in excess of allowable amounts in toys and baby products sold at Walmart and Target. But while Target has agreed to stop selling the items at all its stores, Walmart has only agreed to pull the products in question from stores in California.

Target has told CEH that it will remove the two high chairs -- the "Broadway" and the "VIP" -- found to contain more than the legal limit for lead. One chair was found to contain 70 times the legal limit.

The CEH's test of products sold at WalMart found high lead levels in a toddlers' bean bag chairs, youth boxing gloves and toy foam beads sold for children's jewelry (all pictured above). The items ranged from more than 3 times to more than 45 times the legal limit.

A rep for Walmart tells the AP that the retail giant is putting a halt to sales of these products in California and from Walmart.com.

Says CEH's Research Director:

We cannot understand how WalMart can continue to sell these lead-tainted products to children in any state, or any country... It's been more than two years since federal law established strict limits to protect children from these kinds of lead threats. Clearly WalMart needs to do better for our families.

Additionally, the study found high levels of lead in three adult jewelry items -- two plastic necklace cords and a plastic choker.

The California Attorney General's office, which provided a grant to CEH for the study, has contacted the retailers to demand an end to all sales of lead-tainted items.

more.. link to news article

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 17236 Location: Texas

"Free Shipping Won't Save Wal-Mart's Holidays"

The battle for consumers' holiday spending dollars is heating up. Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) already slashed prices in the annual toy wars, and now it's hoping to online shoppers with free shipping. However, in trying to outdo its rivals, the retailer may not be going far enough.

According to The Wall Street Journal, about 60,000 items from Wal-Mart's online store will be eligible for free shipping during the holiday season. Shoppers will be able to take advantage of the offer without add-ons like minimum cart sizes or subscription services such as Amazon.com's (Nasdaq: AMZN) Prime service. Wal-Mart's even offering the free shipping deal for many electronics, which can be heavy and notoriously expensive to ship.

However, the deal really only represents about one-fourth of the merchandise offered on its website. Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) hot iPads and iPods are notable exclusions from the deal.

Offering free shipping does help the discount giant respond to traditional rivals such as Target (NYSE: TGT) and Costco (Nasdaq: COST), as well as online retailers like Amazon and Overstock.com (Nasdaq: OSTK). The latter's currently advertising free shipping on first orders on its site. Later this month, Target will make a whopping 800,000 items eligible for free shipping when customers spend $50 or more.

more.. link to news article

dticorp · Joined: 19 Aug 2006 Posts: 1758

Wal-Mart Stores closing its Moscow office

BENTONVILLE, Ark. (AP) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is closing its Moscow office but says it is still interested in the Russian market.

The world's biggest retailer said Monday that it has been looking to enter the Russian market through an acquisition, but has not found a near-term opportunity so it does not need the Moscow office at this time.

Doug McMillon, the CEO of Walmart International, says in a statement that Wal-Mart "will continue to pursue market entry opportunities."

Rest of the article here:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/WalMart-Stores-closing-its-apf-363904651.html?x=0

http://www.DtiCorp.com/

HONEYWELL Thermostats and HVAC Controls

http://www.ListFree.org/

ListFree.org - Free Press Release portal

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elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 17236 Location: Texas

"Wal-Mart wants to become more social and mobile"

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced today that it will buy Kosmix Corp., a Silicon Valley firm whose technology searches and analyzes online social data, such as Twitter posts, to personalize web content. Wal-Mart says the purchase will help the retailer develop its social and mobile commerce initiatives faster.

“We are expanding our capabilities in today’s rapidly growing social commerce environment,” says Eduardo Castro-Wright, Wal-Mart’s vice chairman and head of global e-commerce. “Social networking and mobile applications are increasingly becoming a part of our customers’ day-to-day lives globally, influencing how they think about shopping, both online and in retail stores.”

more.. link to news article

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 17236 Location: Texas

"Walmart.com Reacts to Amazon Threat with Grocery Delivery Service"

Walmart.com is testing a grocery delivery service in California in what the Wall Street Journal calls a response to competitive threats from Amazon.com, whose AmazonFresh service is testing grocery delivery in Washington state.

Walmart is committing to online and mobile initiatives, and last week announced it would acquire social media technology platform Kosmix, which "filters and organizes content in social networks to connect people with real-time information that matters to them."

more.. link to news article