Wal-mart

don_118

Did anyone of you guys watch the special on wal-mart last
night?

Yes I understand this is not heat related,however it does
show how aggressive one has to be when pushing a product.

My question to you guys here that has a head for the biz..
What was your thought of wal-mart business pactice?

For me I'm still over whelm with what I watch,not in the sense of wow thats great,but more so on how many vendors
thats were willing to drop there price to get there foot in the door.

Is this how business is done now days.. and has it always been this way?

Empire_2

Drop prices

I believe that the products are being sold and less and less profits are being made by vendors;. What you are seeing is "the Cheapening Of America" Eventually it will all lead to either Civle War or Recession of major proportions. Only the big guy makes the money and hire,...Guess who? lo wage employees.

hr

Not only

do they beat vendors down to the lowest possible penny, they also want 90 days to pay you!

Any slow moving inventory gets returned and the vendor often eats the freight cost also.

If the consumer wants the lowest possible price, well... you get what you pay for!

hot rod

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Empire_2

China

This is what china does to the American market with inferior products and dirt cheap prices. All most people care about, is the lowest price. I have seen a few furnace installations that were not even complete, but hey,..The home owner got the lowest price! wow, what people will do to save a few bucks.

Ken D.

Wal-Mart

Amen, brother. America has become a third world nation as far as buying habits is concerned. Next we will have open bartering and bargaining in the store, like in the Mid East casbah. A friend did some work for Home Depot. They wanted 30% profit, but was only willing to pay the contractor less than 10%. It was ok for them to make a buck, but not OK for anyone else.

S Ebels

Did you see

Wal-Mart lowered their expected profit outlook for the rest of the year today. They claim the high fuel prices are hurting Americans in the pocket giving them less money to spend on Wally world junk. Well that's one way of looking at it.

I would hope though, that people are wising up about the cost of driving 10, 20, even 40-50 miles to get their groceries at WalMart or any of the big chains. Maybe the people are driving less and shopping more locally. I have always failed to see the logic of driving 40 miles one way (that's what Wally world says their trading area is)in order to save $10 or even $20 on a $100 worth of groceries. People don't stop to think what the cost of their time and the wear and tear on the vehicle add up to. That's not even considering the cost of gas. Never added up to me. But as I have observed in my own family, shopping is more of an event or a sport than anything else to some folks.

loose cannon

Who's tired of buying junk?

Who is tired of wasting hard earned money on junk merchandise? I'd rather pay more and get a better product. These big box department stores and home centers all do the same thing - they get the manufacturers to make products that look like top quality products, but they have been cheapened up in a big way. These retail giants sell them and make a big profit margin but the price is still lower than the smaller competition who is trying to sell the top quality product at a small margin of profit. The little guy has a much better product, for a little bit more, but he still gets killed on price! It's like looking at a Honda for $20,000 and then buying a Kia for $18,500. Yeah, you saved some $ but you sure didn't get the same quality!
The bottom line is that places like Wal-Mart will continue to sell the cheapest, lowest-quality junk as long as consumers continue to buy on price alone. For some reason they can get away with taking quality right out of the equation. Do you suppose the trades can get away with that too?
Don't even get me started on this stuff.

John R. Hall

It's a \"cultural thing\"

In my travels across the U.S. I always make it a habit to stop by a Walmart to look for sports toys featuring Detroit players (can't find them locally). In many smaller towns the local Walmart is the center of social actvity. People meet people there and hang out at all hours of the day or night -- no fooling. If you want to see what people do on a Saturday night in small town America, find the Walmart. It's not just about low prices, believe me.

don_119

LOL

John, you and Steve bringup a good point,also takes me back to my younger years.

I had a uncle every sunday after church would ride twenty
miles to go get a carton of ciggs that were three dollars cheaper then in town.
Being a snout nose kid I look at mom and say that just stupid..she look down at me in say son its just not the ciggs he does that to get away from your aunt once in awhile.

Makes perfectly good sense to me now.

Matt Clina

Buying Junk

I could not agree more. I am as guilty of shopping at Wal-Mart as anybody - with three little kids you really can't help it. It really saved a lot of money in diapers, formula and baby food several years ago.

But the side effect of the low prices and cheap goods is a house full of crap. You can all probably relate - it's christmas time, and you want to have an impressive display under the tree. You buy a whole bunch of cheap crap for the kids, which they enjoy for a few days. Then you get an attic, basement, and shed full of crap. You try to sell it at a yard sale, but nobody wants this crap. You get a 10 yard dumpster and fill it full of crap and pay $300 to get it hauled away, where it can sit in a landfill for 10,000 years. Now that the kids are older, we really try to pick one or two quality presents that they really want.

Another thought that has been nagging me, is what will happen when China starts exporting cars? I gotta think that in the not so distant future, there will be Chinese cars for sale in the US for about $4000 each. What do you think this will do to Detroit?

Bob_41

Walmart

hr,

>> Not only do they beat vendors down to the lowest possible penny, they also want 90 days to pay you! Any slow moving inventory gets returned and the vendor often eats the freight cost also. <<

Actually its worse than that. WalMart often insists that the vendor is responsible for the in-store displays, inventory and re-stocking. There are penalties for inventories falling below pre-set levels and more. So in many cases WM doesn't have to "buy" anything, nor recieve it, nor inventory or distribute it! In reality they are little more than renting space out for a hefty %!!

Bob

leo g_13

The Cherry

is said to be on its way to Canada, within the year. Should be very interesting....

Leo G

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Matt Clina

How am I gonna

fit all my Walmart crap into this thing??

Weezbo

I call all those stores \"All the junk,i never knew i could live

without stores"...mostly i view them as a trip to test my memory on new pieces of junk.*~/:)

hvacpro1

WAL MART the place to go for cheap plastic crap. I'll admit I go there for TP razors etc. But if need something decent that is going to last, well... (Buy quality? Cry once. Buy cheap? Cry over and over.) Sound familier?

Brian Tober

Blame the CEO's of the big corporations who decided to produce their goods in China and Mexico so they could save money and get huge bonuses, and the Politicians who did not try and do anything to stop them, not Wal-mart. Don't you guys try and get the lowest price for supplies to do a job to increase your profit margins? Its just smart business to ask the supply house for a discount, why should wal-mart not ask for a lower price? They can just say no and sell thru other retailers, but, wal-mart is the largest volume retailer in the world so some just want a foot in the door even if they break even. Havent you guys taken jobs that you knew would not make any money but would be great opportunities for visibilty for your company to get the next job that did pay big profits?

Brian Tober

I heard on the news that the Big 3 USA automakers are planning to begin producing cars in China. So who do you blame for this decision? Wal-mart? Bush? Clinton? George Washington? Michael Jackson? or the CEO's out in Detroit who need fatter wallets to sit on. America is being sold out by our own greed.

ALH_3

MJ

What I can never understand is why Honda and Toyota can build their cars here and beat the American auto makers. It's not the labor cost that's the culprit for American companies going overseas. I think it's Michael Jackson. ;-)

-Andrew

steve_29

What I don't understand is why people are so upset with a company that has suceded.

If you don't like Wally World , don't shop there.

When Walmart came to my town, business people went nuts.

The council couldn't stop them from coming in and basically forced Walmart to put up a smallers store.

Guess what Walmart is doing now???
Putting up the store they originally wanted.

And the funny this is, those same people that bitched are the same ones shopping there now!!

ED_29

Wal-mart

In the end ,this Country will destroy itself.Not by War ,but economically. The other Countrys take advantage of our trade agreements & our C E O,s sell us down the river! God Bless America ! ED !

Richard_4

walmart

i dislike walmart as much as any true American, but when walmart calls me for plumbing service I smile from ear to ear. for the last five years we serviced two super stores in my area. we visit each store at least two to three times a month. I have no problem at all charging them $185.00 an hour to fix a drip or snake a line. they have not squabbled in five years. thier products are cheap and they take advantage of many but they do take care of thier PHCC contractors......RUSKO.

S Ebels

The greed thing

I agree about the greedy CEO thing to a certain extent........... There are a lot of big-wig types that are out in the business world looking only to fatten their own pockets and stroke their own ego. There are however a great number of them who are really concerned about the USA, the jobs of their employees and the health of the company they run.

The simple fact of business, in a capitalistic society such as ours, is that if company A can produce widget #5 for $1.00 and it costs company B $1.10 to produce the same thing.........B loses. period end of discussion.

Their are a lot of other factors that enter into the equation which handicap our auto industry unable to compete. For example, I was told recently that the cost of benefits alone on every vehicle GM makes is something like $11,000. How much do you think the benefit package costs in Mexico or China or Korea? The sad fact is that the American worker has priced himself out of the manufacturing type labor market.
Or consider the environmental costs incurred by a manufacturer here as opposed making the same product in Thailand or Pakistan. Not even close.
If that doesn't do it for you, take a moment to total up what you pay in liabilty insurance for your small business. Now multiply that by a factor of 1,000,000 for companies like GE, GM, Ford, or whoever you choose. What do you think liabilty expenses are for workman's comp are in countries where the lawyers haven't driven settlements to the level of absurdity they are here.

I'm not writing an apology for US manufacturers in any way. I'm just pointing out that it's often easy to blame the guy who happens to be the BIG target. The CEO's, the President, City Hall, the governor etc. There are a lot of factors at play which make this country non competitive in the global marketplace.

Change is often painful.

Gordy

Ross Perout

He said you will here a giant sucking sound.......We shoulda listened!

Its a global economy now days... Its funny as a kid I remember all the small specialty shops/buisnesses I would see in our town...Its hard for a small store to make a go now days, with all the big box retailers. Americans want it now,and as wide a selection they can get. If somebody needs several different items they will go to the store where they can buy it all in one stop if possible, That is Walmarts strategy. We have everything from groceries to tires. Cheap price to boot. I hate the way its become.

Gordy

Weezbo

i remember a quote from earlier days\"China will conquer...

America ,from Within"....er, hmmmmm.....

Ken D.

Wal

Management is strange in this country. Jaques Nasser was fired from the helm of Ford Motor for poor performance.....they then gave him 100 million dollars. Could have lowered the prices on alot of cars or done some good engineering with that kind of change. Go figure.

Weezbo

i'da quit for half that ! *~/:)...

dennis02

wal mart

I hate going to the big box stores .If i have to go there for somthing small whatever it is. I have to sit on a line for a half hour just to pay and nevermind finding what you are looking for thats another nightmare. I find myself paying more for the product. But i think when i save myself all that time it s worth the few cents i would have saved if i had went to the big box store

Ken_8

Yeah,

Aren't we the hypochrits. If memory serves, they are the # 1 retailer in the world, employ enough people to form their own country, paid dividends to more mutual funds and union pension funds than we can imagine and sell a 12 foot surf fishing rod for 22 bucks and a golf putter for 4 bucks I saw somewhere else for 10 times that price.

I work too hard for my money to throw it away. Just because something is priced below my expectations does not in any way make it inferior. It's about choices. I want to make my own, thank you. How you spend your money and on what rationale is your business.

When New Jesrey contractors and wholesalers all whined about Lowe's, Home Depot and big box stores in general, after ten years of that dynamic, not one contractor or wholesaler that I know (oh sure; there were a few marginal contractors who were on the brink of going down the tubes that "blamed" those forces on their utlimate demise anyhow) actually went under. The fact is, the threat was not even close to the reality.

The reality also became, whose trucks and vans fill the early opening hours of Homey and Lowes' everyday - especially on week-ends anyhow? The very ones who lamented loudest.



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Ted_9

Regarding the automobile manufacturers. I heard the disscusion on National Public Radio last week I think. I beleive they siad China could sell a car here in the US for $6,000.00. Thats almost an impulse purchase.

PATRIOT HEATING & COOLING, INC.

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bovide_4

hd and lowes

While I am not a fan of the bix box stores, they filled a void in the market:
1) As an older plumber, I remember the days when if you walked in to an out of town(or other supply house you didn't have an account with) after 4pm, the prices doubled.
Since the arrival of the bix box stores, service has been much better.
2) Women get treated with much more respect at the supply house nowadays, also.
3) HD and Lowes' service has gone down the tubes in the last few years.
4) More of my customers are taking my recommendations and going to my (small) suppliers for fixtures.

The moral of the story is that absolute power corrupts, absolutely.

ps: you must be a masochist to buy imported fittings and valves

John R. Hall

Lighter side of Walmart

Boy gets stuck in Wal-Mart crane vending machine


POSTED: Sunday, May 22, 2005 11:59:19 AM

ELKHART, Ind. -- A fast-moving 3-year-old found himself in a tight spot at an Indiana Wal-Mart store Thursday.

The boy managed to climb up inside a crane vending machine after his mother refused to give him money to play it.


At first the boy’s mother thought it was funny, even buying a disposable camera to take pictures of her son playing with the stuffed toys inside the machine.


However, things became a bit more serious when she learned store employees didn’t have a key to get her son out.


Firefighters had to remove the back of the machine to free the boy, who, according to his mother, “definitely” didn’t get a toy after that.



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