" Apparently this happens all the time; shoplifters know that Wal-Mart policy doesn’t permit store associates to chase down thieves. “If they make it past the registers, you just have to let them go,” Carlos, one of the night shift employees, told me. “"
Knowing now that I can get “free stuff”, still have no desire to ever go. BTW, are they also forbidden from calling the cops? What’s up with this?
They don’t want their employees injured–or shot. They aren’t the only company that has that policy; my daughter worked for the Gap and they also would not prosecute shoplifters who got out the door.
But don’t they have security guards for this?
Fabulous article. But the gratuitous insults (against Walmart) miss an important point. Walmart doesn’t kill small-town businesses, any more than lawyers corrupt everything decent in American life. It’s the shoppers who abandoned their local (and smaller, more-expensive and inadequately stocked) local stores. Just as it’s us, average citizens, who keep our lawsuit-crazy culture in business by hiring the sharks every time we bump a knee.
If there’s blame for the monopolizing effects of Walmart, it goes straight to the pocketbooks of its customers. I don’t shop at Walmart because of the horrific labor practices–and because I’d rather pay a little more to merchants I know and like. But Walmart is obviously delivering something people want. And, as the author points out, they’re the only game in town for a lot of folks.
Kind of like a slow motion plague of locusts.
In Stillwater Oklahoma, population about 50,000 where my brother lives, there was early a Walmart opened there on the suburban style strip retail running on the north side of town. It was the big discount store there as it was in a lot of small cities. But Stillwater is also the home of OSU, and fairly dynamic city, and big enough for more than one big discount store. So a few years ago Target bought land on the west side of town with the intent to build a store there and give the people of Stillwater choice of discount stores. But Walmart quickly bought property across from the Target property and got a new 24 hour Supercenter up while Target plotted. With two Walmarts in town there was no room for a 3rd store by Target. So the Target store was never built. And so Walmart maintains a monopoly for discount stores in Stillwater. (I should note, that it’s been a little over a year since I’ve been there. so maybe things have changed, but last I knew there was only Walmart in Stillwater).
That’s always my impression of them. I feel like I’m walking through a giant dollar store. Sure the prices are cheap, but you’re pretty much getting what you pay for.
I’ll admit, I’ve never gotten Wal-Mart. In absolutely every way imaginable, it feels identical to K-Mart to me – shoddy service, dirty stores, terrible meat & produce, an abundance of CPC’s (Cheap Plastic Crap), depressing florescent lighting, poor quality made-in-China appliances, cheap off-brand electronics, and a generally miserable shopping experience. And yet K-Marts across the country are virtually empty while Wal-Marts across the country usually involve a half-mile hike from the parking lot since they’re always packed. I don’t get the appeal at all. (Unless, as this article describes, it’s truly the only store in town.)
In San Angelo, TX there are currently two Super Wal-Marts. There are plans in the works for a third one plus one of their neighborhood grocery stores. Residents of the smaller towns surrounding San Angelo come to town to shop there. Right across the street from one of the Super Wal-Marts is a Sam’s Club warehouse store. Next to the same Wal-Mart is a Lowe’s. There is no lack of business in any of the big box stores. However, the most popular grocery store is an HEB.
Next up: how the American people became “The People of Wal-Mart.”
After WM has put every other retail shop in any small town out of business, (or as close to it as they can come)
Where else is everyone going to “gather?” The local Drive-in, maybe?
Megalo Mart. Hank Hill hate to shop there.
That’s the problem. You can want to patronize your local merchants, a hardware store, for example, but the price they have to charge to remain in business is so high that the big box retailer kills them. How much can customers afford to pay to keep local retailers in business? I know they’re your friends and neighbors, but at some point your own self interest wins out.
True, it’s almost impossible to compete against Walmart on the basis of price – you’d get buried.
However, a local hardware store survived the opening of a Walmart less than one mile away by emphasizing service: they have knowledgeable staff that is capable of answering questions, they provide installation when needed, etc. By emphasizing these assets they have retained customer loyalty.
This is actually not true. My parents used to own a hardware store, and we were quite competitive on the pricing of most things. It’s mostly Wal-Mart propaganda that they’re “so much cheaper”, at least for things we sold.
Here’s how that works. Wal-Mart maintains a list of items that are considered “high visibility”. Stuff that people really notice the price of, for whatever reason. Wal-Mart put a lot of marketing research into this list, because those are the items that they sell at a loss. Giving people the impression that their prices are “so cheap”. Think 60-watt GE soft white bulbs, I promise you Wally sold those cheaper than we did because we weren’t selling at a loss like they were. The rest of their store… well if it was actually the same item, it usually wasn’t noticeably cheaper (have to make some allowance for the garbage on their shelves that we refused to stock).
And speaking of items that weren’t actually the same item, I have a story. One day one of our regular customers came over to me, visibly agitated. Holding a 12 pack of glue sticks for crafting. Asks me if the price is right, it was $3.49. I check the cost code, looks fine, normal margin. He says, “Wal-Mart has a five pack of these for $2.99! I thought they promised to beat prices on the same item?”. I looked him right in the eye and said, “I’m selling a 12 pack. I can’t sell a 5-pack, the manufacturer only makes those available to Wal-Mart. So it’s not the same item, they have the best price on a 5-pack.” He thought I was joking at first, but I wasn’t… that’s really how Wal-Mart operates. Sell high visibility at a loss, jerk people around on secondary items. They can force suppliers to give them separate product lines just so they can avoid getting in trouble for lying about the whole Best Price thing.
If you know what to look for, you can see where their prices often are either not particularly low, or they’re selling clearly crappier versions of a product just so they can claim to have better prices. But it’s pretty carefully setup so that most consumers will never realize it. Obviously your local hardware can beat out Wal-Mart on service, but if you think they’re unbeatable on price, I have some glue sticks to sell you. 
Thanks for the info. I am relying on info related to Walmart’s much larger buying power, which they typically use to negotiate lower prices from vendors. It’s great that you can beat Walmart on price.
I still stand by my contention, however, that some firms have been able to survive competition from Walmart by emphasizing better service.
Completely disagreed. The reasoning required to blame individuals is deeply ignorant of the factors at work. In reality, it is in everyone’s collective interests to boycott Walmart, but in everyone’s individual interests to shop there. Unless collective action is taken and encouraged, there is absolutely no way an individual human being can resist the emotional, psychological and rational forces involved. It’s kind of a tragedy of the commons, where you know if a few boycott Walmart, they will be much worse off, while everyone else will only be slightly worse off.
The only way to short circuit these forces is by action at the town/state/national levels, which is why the big money has been pushed towards dismantling any sort of collective action (whether through unions, local or federal government, govt. agencies, or through other groups) for decades.
The LA Times did a survey of Wal-Mart pricing a number of years ago. Something like 2% of the items they sampled (and it was a large number) were cheaper at Wal-Mart than elsewhere, but they were items people would notice and often buy.
The funny thing about Wal-Mart was back in the 80s, they were the “anti-KMart”, plenty of staff on the floor, nicely run stores. Not exactly Target, but more able to attract “Target customers”. At a certain point they decided to go for complete standardization and to basically go for people who had limited options–the poor, the rural, etc.It’s not a good strategy for long-term growth. Rural areas often aren’t growing. Low to middle income shoppers have been consistently squeezed in terms of disposable income. And Wal-Mart responded by thinning their staffs and letting the stores go downhill. They haven’t invested sufficiently in the internet. Many of their foreign acquisitions have been failures. Sam’s Club has not been very successful. At some point they will run out of people to cut–managers now cover more than one store. they’ll probably have to sell the Japanese stores or Sam’s Club at some point. They are in a slow decline but so large it will take decades for them to end–much like Sears since the 70s.
When Walmart is all there is, you’re basically screwed.
Two things I am eternally grateful for with regards to my home country, neither Murdoch nor Walmart ever gained a foothold and both tried. Walmart lasted a couple of years and then had to close shop, they never turned a profit in Germany.