Walmart's Project Impact: A Move to Crush Competition

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.

Thus, the company is in the beginning stages of a massive store and strategy remodeling effort, which it has dubbed Project Impact. One goal of Project Impact is cleaner, less cluttered stores that will improve the shopping experience. Another is friendlier customer service. A third: home in on categories where the competition can be killed. "They've got Kmart ready to take a standing eight-count next year," says retail consultant Burt Flickinger III, managing director for Strategic Resources Group and a veteran Walmart watcher. "Same with Rite Aid. They've knocked out four of the top five toy retailers, and are now going after the last one standing, Toys "R" Us. Project Impact will be the catalyst to wipe out a second round of national and regional retailers." (See 10 things to buy during the recession.)

Though that's bad news for many smaller businesses that can't compete, Walmart investors have clamored for this push. Despite the company's consistently strong financial performance, Wall Street hasn't cheered Walmart's growth rates. During the 1990s, the company's stock price jumped 1,173%. In this decade, it's down around 24% (Walmart's stock closed at $51.74 per share on Sept. 3). "Walmart is under excruciating pressure from employees and frustrated institutional investors to get the stock up," says Flickinger. (Read "Can Toys "R" Us Sell Toilet Paper?")

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The United States of Walmart.

Yes...finally....thanks to ridiculous trade laws and lack of enforcement of anti-trust laws as well....Wal-Mart will become the only place to shop!

To hell with the few standing competitors Wal-Mart has...who cares! It's not like we make anything here anymore anyway!

If I were President....the first thing I'd do would raise tariffs on imports immediately to make our country COMPETITIVE again....and then I would take about a big ass anti-trust broom and clean house.

God Bless Walmart.

The Recession has done nothing but STRENGTHEN CORPORATE POWER as small business owners become extinct.

[edit on 9-9-2009 by David9176]

Circuit City went bankrupt because they fired all of their employees who had tenure, and hired kids whew knew nothing about their products, not because of WalMart. The strip malls, K-Mart, Ames, Jamesway killed mom-and-pop businesses long before WalMart came around. WalMart has plenty of competitors- Meijer in the MidWest, and BestBuy and Target all over the US. Those companies aren't going under- regardless of what WalMart does. I prefer to buy US-made products, so I don't shop at WalMart, but not everyone else can afford to do the same. They provide a valuable service- cheap products for those with little money.

[edit on 9-9-2009 by stevegmu]

Honestly, the single biggest negative influence I think is the constant drive to grow. Some businesses should reach their appropriate size and stop there. Why do they always have to grow?

"One goal of Project Impact is cleaner, less cluttered stores that will improve the shopping experience. Another is friendlier customer service."

What?!?! Cleaner stores and better customer service?!?! How dare they?!?!

reply to post by rogerstigers



If a business is well managed, the more it grows, the more money it generates, and the better it can become. WalMart is now a 'green' company, and also provides health insurance to a majority of its employees- something they were unable to do when they started out.

Circuit City also went under because they were not responsible. They purchased too much product and couldn't sell it, therefore going into debt with their vendors and causing store closures.

I work in big box retail as an Operations Manager for one of the biggest electronics retailers in north america (I live in Canada though, I'll let your mind wander) and we feel the pressure of driving sales every day. I know why Wal*Mart strives to be profitable and to take out any major competitor they can...we're trying to do that all the time.

If you don't innovate in retail and attempt to be better all the time, you will go under. It's very dog-eat-dog.

Originally posted by stevegmu
Circuit City went bankrupt because they fired all of their employees who had tenure, and hired kids whew knew nothing about their products, not because of WalMart. The strip malls, K-Mart, Ames, Jamesway killed mom-and-pop businesses long before WalMart came around. WalMart has plenty of competitors- Meijer in the MidWest, and BestBuy and Target all over the US. Those companies aren't going under- regardless of what WalMart does. I prefer to buy US-made products, so I don't shop at WalMart, but not everyone else can afford to do the same. They provide a valuable service- cheap products for those with little money.

[edit on 9-9-2009 by stevegmu]

I remember Circuit City doing that. They fired all their long time employees and hired people for like minimum wage. People boycotted them over it if I recall.

I never shopped there anyway. Way too pricey.

Originally posted by Jessicamsa

Originally posted by stevegmu
Circuit City went bankrupt because they fired all of their employees who had tenure, and hired kids whew knew nothing about their products, not because of WalMart. The strip malls, K-Mart, Ames, Jamesway killed mom-and-pop businesses long before WalMart came around. WalMart has plenty of competitors- Meijer in the MidWest, and BestBuy and Target all over the US. Those companies aren't going under- regardless of what WalMart does. I prefer to buy US-made products, so I don't shop at WalMart, but not everyone else can afford to do the same. They provide a valuable service- cheap products for those with little money.

[edit on 9-9-2009 by stevegmu]

I remember Circuit City doing that. They fired all their long time employees and hired people for like minimum wage. People boycotted them over it if I recall.

I never shopped there anyway. Way too pricey.

It wasn't just the boycotts that killed them. i'd go in after having viewed a product I wanted online, only to find the price at the store was not the same as I saw on the internet. Even after speaking with a store manager, the best offer I would get would be to bring a flier in and they would match the price at a later date. It got to where whenever I wanted something, I would have to print out the item from their web-site, then go straight to the manager at the store. I gave up after a while, and drove the extra 10 miles to a Best Buy.