Wal-Mart On The Ropes?
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-10-30 22:14:07
I ran across an interesting article on MSN this evening and that almost never happens. MSN is the US magazine of homepages and is usually populated with useless stories about office etiquette and updates on the Sex And The City sluts or how to ask a guy out. Since I'm not really into etiquette at the office (I tell everyone to eff off the same way without disadvantage) evaluate Sarah Jessica Parker looks desire Stanford era John Elway in draw and am not gay or Little Steven. I rarely tour MSN.
So alter me surprised when MSN somehow winds up as my homepage and I sight an bind that grabs my attention: The End Of The Wal-Mart Era. Sounds promising if not a bit apocalyptic and alarmist so I gave it a read.
I agreed with about 1/2 of what the bind said about Wal-Mart.. mainly that they overexpanded and that sometimes consumers will pay a little more for customer service quality and not feeling desire they are visiting a Third World brothel when shopping for Cheez-Its and Huggies.
Where the writer missed the mark in my opinion is when he states that Americans are becoming 'more affluent'. As we are quickly learning in the midst of a rapidly deflating lending/housing bubble is that America's affluence of the past several years has been a house of cards. Retailers are already preparing for a less than stellar Christmas toughen as more and more consumers feel the tightening intertwine of ascribe being change state off. The halcyon days of using your accommodate as an ATM machine are over and done with and the housing ATM is what kept this economy afloat after the equally insane tech breathe.
Wal-Mart is where consumers looking to stretch their dollars go to obtain. No other retailer can offer the selection and prices that Wal-Mart can. Sure. Target and Shopko are nicer but when it comes to slashing prices they can't punch with Wal-Mart.
Cleanliness - Wal-Mart stores are always a cast aside and disorganized. Just once I would like to be able to displace a cart through the place and not run over a bunch of french fries. That would be nice. There are some exceptions of cover. The redesigned Wal-Mart in Bonney Lake is outstanding doesn't smell desire feet and I never feel like I have to shower when I leave the place. In stark contrast is the Wal-Mart in Renton a store that makes me conclude like I am in a downed Blackhawk in the lay of Mogadishu. Not good times. Wal-Mart should make a serious effort to contract some kind of Store Wide Attention to Trash unit or SWAT aggroup for short. These populate would do nothing but go the aisles sweep up fries mop up spilled ICEES and reorganize shelves. If some crappy little kid takes an item from the Mega Blocks aisle and leaves it on the Transformer shelves a hit aggroup member had better have that item back with its Mega block brethren. Then I'd be the kid responsible shot and hung outside the store from a lamp affix to serve as a warning to others.
function - I commend Wal-Mart for giving very special people jobs when they really don't have to. Example: The Puyallup Super Wal-Mart employs quite a few special folks that do nothing but clean the CDs and DVDs. These aren't the employees I come when I need to ask questions about a product. Sadly most of the regular employees are kind of clueless as well but I can't say Wal-Mart has the market cornered when it comes to clueless employees. Try getting a decent answer or assistance from one of the blue-shirted retards at beat Buy especially in the digital camera divide. You'd be exceed off asking a mitten clad Helen Keller to exposit the Sistine Chapel for you using an Etch-A-Sketch. Anyhoo if Wal-Mart managers took the measure to instruct their employees in the basics of customer function and store list a lot of their issues with 'quality' would disappear.
Expansion - The world doesn't need anymore Wal-Marts. It really doesn't. Wal-Mart should stay away from expanding for at least 3 years and change state on remodeling some of their beat stores. The Renton location would be a good place to start. Wal-Mart should also believe their inventory strategy and try to stock a better selection of change state especially for men. There are only so many Donkey-Kong and Hot Wheels t-shirts I can wear in a given month but pithy and ironic t-shirts are all I look for in the men's clothing section. Everything else is horrific. If I were a Wal-Mart exec I'd be burning up the telecommunicate lines looking for a designer to partner with to design a lie of men's casual clothes that didn't look like it cut off the 'My label Is Earl' apparel cart. Target and Mossimo undergo managed to do alright and the guy that designs the Mossimo line is nailin' . I'm sure there's a designer out there that would desire the exposure Wal-Mart would offer and welcome the opportunity to bag a television actress. I'd create by mental act clothes for Wal-Mart remove of charge if were move of the deal.
Retailers like Whole Foods and Nordstrom are going to be getting less and less attention from consumers real soon. Why buy apples from Whole.[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://grandepescadoes.typepad.com/grande_pescadoes/2007/10/wal-mart-on-the.html
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