Walmart's Project Impact: A Move to Crush Competition

Walmart's Project Impact: A Move to Crush Competition

news.yahoo.com

Walmart loves to shock and awe. City-size stores, absurdly low prices ($8 jeans!) and everything from milk to Matchbox toys on its shelves. And with the recession forcing legions of stores into bankruptcy, the world's largest retailer now apparently wants to take out the remaining survivors.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Reading over this article it really hits some interesting points. With the world on the move towards globalization, the Walmart super giant is constantly expanding at an alarming rate. It's interesting to see it's new plan to totally crush all opposition. I think this is the beginning of the end for the little guy with stores like Walmart going in for the kill. I don't want to see the world where all I am able to shop at is Walmart, Best Buy and other large chains currently pushing globalization.

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Time Magazine
(additional news source)


[edit on 9-9-2009 by born2BWild]

I was a Wal Mart manager for years, and I know of their aggressive price cuts and tactics!

We would price shop and adjust $.01 below the competition, but if we had to adjust the price 3 or more times (i.e. price war), we would drop the retail to 10% below our cost!! Now, our cost was drastically lower than anybody elses, plus they could not afford to lose money on sales, while we could afford it! It was like a punishment tactic for attempting to match our price!

In addition, we had strict orders to remove any employee or customer that even mentioned organizing a union. They were to be removed from the premises immediately to never return even as a customer!! Wal Mart takes Union, and Price Wars very, very seriously!

reply to post by getreadyalready



There's a great documentary out there called Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price , which touches on exactly the points you talked about, especially the dirty stuff they do to people who try to get a union going.

Ah, found the site - www.walmartmovie.com...

It's a real eye opener!

I shop the little guy as much as possible and tell others to do the same. The little guy is the one who keeps the big guys honest. Once all competition is gone the prices go up to make up for the lost revenue. ALWAYS remember that.

I normally shop direct at a local farmers market/craft group. I got fresh off the boat shrimp and homemade cheese as well as the usual this time. I found I eat less when I eat farm fresh food and the veggies last longer so I do not have to toss stuff like I use to so I really am not paying that much more.

I work for a CVS pharmacy. I got an earfull earlier this year..im in management. I was told, IF anyone approaches me, regarding, wantign to talk about a union, I/the employee would be immediatly terminated. CVS does not want order..they just want the freedom to bully people around, degrade employees, and thats what htey expect of me/you which i dont do. its unmoralistic, and a good way to start lawsuits over discrimination and harasment. i know unions arnt always what their cracked up to be...but obviously, in my case, the comapny is scared of something? higher up postions being fired for cirmes they have commited? labor law infractions? Therydde rather get rid of the hard worker, so they can retain the profits and job. in other words, NO complaints, even if its legite and serious, they jsut want yuo to deal with it till yuo go nuts or quit.
Anyhoo..i saw this news when i signed onto aol earlier. Seems walmart wills top at nothing, till they monopoloze ALL retail buisness, which is ILLEGAL, last i knew, in buisness law.

reply to post by ziggy1706


So where does capitalization meet this monopoly requirement? Where does it end, where we the people or even the government, are able to step in and say no more?

I was in Anchorage Alaska on a project a few weeks ago (may be moving there soon, actually) and I gotta say, Walmart was an attractive option to me as a consumer. This really applies only to Anchorage, but unless you've been there you have no idea how expensive the "little guys" are to shop at. Just picking up some groceries for my stay would have cost me at least double what I paid at Walmart. It's a true catch-22, however, because I recognize that the day the competition shuts down is the day Walmart will upwardly adjust their prices to reflect the lack of consumer options.

reply to post by burdman30ott6


I believe the little guy's are now stuck in a rut. We have this supermarket giant implementing all the stops and price drops anyone can imagine to win over the consumer. This says a lot especially during these economic downturns. It leaves the consumer with no real options but to make the smart money decision and go for the Walmart extravaganza. I think the worst is yet too come for the business's teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and massive overall debt during this holiday season. However this is just based on speculation and many other factors that are currently at play here.

[edit on 9-9-2009 by born2BWild]

Those low prices will be a thing of the past once Wal-Mart establishes a monopoly in the market.

Sounds like someone could use Wal-Mart's own anti-union policy against them.

Wonder what would happen if an employee was to print up a handful of 1/4-sheet flyers talking about the benefits of unions, flyers which appeared to be put out by various department managers, and placed them discreetly around the store?

Pretty soon will have 1 mega Walmart store towns. You will get your medical exam(thanks to Obamacare), your taxes done, hair cut, shop for your groceries, get your furniture etc.
This will be your major entertainment for the week as well as your small town main street will be deserted. Makes me kind of sick.

If so many people didn't shop at WalMart, they would never have grown so large. Target isn't scared of WalMart, neither is Best Buy, nor Meijer, nor Costco, or Sam's Club... Plenty of competition. The small stores were mostly killed off by the strip-malls, not WalMart.

reply to post by stevegmu


All the stores you mention are huge megastores. Of course they destroyed the little mom and pops! By the way Sams club is owned by Walmart.

Somewhat related...
peopleofwalmart.com...
Greatest.webpage.ever

I only wish that I'd had a camera with me on the few times I've been inside a Walmart after 11:30 at night to pick up some emergency Ny-Quil or other middle of the night purchase. I don't believe I've ever been in a Walmart in the wee hours when I didn't see at least one family, 5+ children filthy from head to toe, husband/D-of-the-month sporting the mullet and beer belly exposed through the rip in his wife-beater or t-shirt, momma who is just vaguely attractive enough at a distance to cause problems after several shots in the bar but up close is a walking display case of pancake makeup, hot pants, and stretch marks (graciously shown to all courtesy of her 3/4 stretch lycra shirt), and always with the cart full of Sam's brand "cola", candy, diapers, and once they get to checkout and ask for them, a carton of Basic brand smokes. I am a redneck and am damn proud of that fact, but these people even embarass me.

One of the best South Park episodes is something wal-mart this way comes.

I will pay more to shop somewhere else. First off, you get what you pay for. Wal mart stuff is crap.

Secondly, I don't want to support child labor overseas.

Second , walmart practices are horrific.

But even then, occassionaly, I have to go in there.

Our wal marts search you on the way out. You have to show them your receipts. I just wanna say, gotta protect that 5 cent investment.

Originally posted by Symbiote
Sounds like someone could use Wal-Mart's own anti-union policy against them.

Wonder what would happen if an employee was to print up a handful of 1/4-sheet flyers talking about the benefits of unions, flyers which appeared to be put out by various department managers, and placed them discreetly around the store?

That sounds like an interesting idea. However, what would someone put as the benefits of unions? Some are not at all familar with what unions even do.

Originally posted by stevegmu
If so many people didn't shop at WalMart, they would never have grown so large. Target isn't scared of WalMart, neither is Best Buy, nor Meijer, nor Costco, or Sam's Club... Plenty of competition. The small stores were mostly killed off by the strip-malls, not WalMart.

You do realize Sam's Club is owned by Wal-mart, right?

I worked for a few days at Sam's Club though and I must say it was much worse than Wal-mart itself. Sam's Club was going to cheat me out of my break. At Wal-mart, if an employee was caught not taking a break or meal, the employee ended up being fired. Why someone would not take a break or meal on purpose is beyond me, but I liked working at Wal-mart because I knew I would get my breaks. When I worked at Kroger (which was union btw), I'd get cheated out of my breaks, plus the store expected me to drop high school and work for them. They'd even schedule me so that I'd have to skip school to get to work on time.

reply to post by Jessicamsa


Ahhh, you just had a stupid supervisor! I never treated my employees that way at Sam's or WalMart!

When I was younger, I drove a forklift at Sam's Club at night. We worked about an hour, then we moved all the stuff out of the way, set up a basketball court, made pizza and played for about 3 hours!!

Then we cleaned up, and started working about an hour before the morning people started coming in!!

Originally posted by stevegmu
If so many people didn't shop at WalMart, they would never have grown so large. Target isn't scared of WalMart, neither is Best Buy, nor Meijer, nor Costco, or Sam's Club... Plenty of competition. The small stores were mostly killed off by the strip-malls, not WalMart.

Actually, with the way the economy is, all these stores are very fearful of Walmart (save for Costco, who seems to have crushed Sam's Club, which is owned by Walmart). Why buy overpriced electronics from Best Buy when I can buy them at Wal-Mart for less? As long as you are buying a brand name like Panasonic or something, the quality will be about equal.
Even Target is having problems as nobody is really buying money-making nick-knacks, clothing, kitchen appliances, etc. unless they absolutely need to. Around here, they have been frantically remodeling regular stores and adding isles of grocery, frozen, and a limited selection of fresh foods (while cutting back other departments like Toys, sporting goods, etc.), but there is only so much profit you can make on cans of corn before you start losing money. Face it, unless you have the lowest prices in this economy, there is very little room to stand out in the crowd.