You know, I’ve been going to Walmart (then Wal-Mart) since I was a youngster. My brother and I loved the place. We only got to go during our annual pilgrimage, on Memorial Day, to Pittsburg, Kansas. That’s because, at the time, Walmarts were only located in rural areas, and since we lived in Kansas City, we didn’t have access to one. I thought Walmart was awesome because they had lots of toys and they were cheaper than the K-Mart we went to regularly.
Fast forward twenty-five (!) years or so. Walmart (having lost its hyphen) has taken over the universe and now has ginormous stores from coast to coast. Their MO is to make money hand over fist, and, in certain circles they are seen as either a force for evil in the universe or merely trashy, depending on where you stand in political and socioeconomic strata. Some of the arguments against Walmart’s business model, are quite frankly valid, and it does strongarm vendors in a way that’s unseemly (from what I’ve read).
While I am not an apolitical person, I straddle the red state and blue state ethos on the Walmart issue. I dislike dogma in either form, and tend to prefer letting a thousand flowers bloom. While I certainly don’t think that Walmart is a paragon of corporate virtue (how can a corporation be anything other than a sociopath?) I don’t think their failings are big enough to stop me from engaging in an arms-length transaction. If Walmart’s offerings are better than their competitors, so be it.
However, Walmart comes to mind now because they’ve experienced four consecutive quarters of declining sales. This article in the Wall Street Journal talks about some of the retail giant’s struggles. They’ve had a couple of unforced errors: taking people’s favorite brands off of their shelves; eliminating fabric from their stores after having run all the competition off; a failed attempt at taking the brand upmarket.
Now, I don’t have access to any stats or figures from either the crazy Walton-haters or Walmart apologists. But, as a homemaker dude and rational actor, I tend to go to Walmart less and less over time. Here’s why:
- Nasty stores. When I lived in Maryland the stores closest to me were not pleasant (the Bowie store, or the Alexandria, VA Hybla Valley when I was at work). Dirty, tiny aisles, never ever enough checkers and perennially under construction. When a Supercenter opened up closer (a few months before we moved away) the employees were so rude you wanted to backhand them.
- Discrepancies between the Supercenter and regular stores. The Supercenters are generally really nice and they have everything (the one-stop shopping factor is HUGE in my “where to shop” decisions. However, I’ve figured out that you can’t go to a regular store and expect to find the same stuff as at the super Walmart. It’s like two different tracks, and that throws a wrench into the flexibility that having a Walmart everywhere offers.
- No ads. I check out the ads for Target and such like at my in-laws’ house (they take the paper). Walmart doesn’t have ads (I understand this was one of the unforced errors they made, per above). Walmart is absent. If you do get an ad in the mail, they’re always totally underwhelming. I’m sorry, but show me a little leg in the ad. Act like you want the sale. Know what I’m saying?
- No sales. We all know Walmart’s schtick: they’re good at inventory, they don’t keep extra, it’s the poster child for “just in time” blah blah blah. Their prices are generally low, which factors into my decision to shop there when I do. But even when you look at their clearance section, they only take like 25¢ off the price. Throw me a bone, honestly!
- Just in time for them, not for me. Case in point: it’s early July and I’m looking for a kid’s swimming pool. We’ve only seen the sun for 4 days at this point. You go to Walmart and there’s not a kids pool to be found: they’re all sold and we’ve moved on to back to school. I admire their efficiency, but they’re too efficient. They don’t understand: I don’t want to have my money sitting around in inventory either. I want to have just in time inventory, and I want to be able to get a kiddy pool at the time it is required. I do not want to be thinking, gosh, it’s April and it’s 49 degrees, but I better buy that kiddy pool now because they’ll be gone in favor of back to school soon. To me this is a stupidity that is by no means unique to Walmart, but you think they’d know better. I think they’re leaving money on the table doing stuff like this.
That’s about it. This is not a rant–I still plan on going to Walmart whenever my purchasing requires it. It’s just some observations I’ve made that sort of back up what I’ve read about the struggle they’re having to stay king of the world.
