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why walmart is not your best deal

why walmart is not your best deal

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by: ProblemAgain Active Indicator LED Icon 10 OP 
~ 8 years ago   Jan 25, '16 8:04pm  
for them, it is NOT about the employees or the communityInside the Ticker
 
Presented by
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Wal-Mart: It came, it conquered and now it’s leaving
 
 

 





Bloomberg



Shannon Pettypiece

13 hrs ago
 



 
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The Town’n Country grocery in
Oriental, North Carolina, a local fixture for 44 years, closed its doors
in October after a Wal-Mart store opened for business. Now, three
months later -- and less than two years after Wal-Mart arrived -- the
retail giant is pulling up stakes, leaving the community with no grocery
store and no pharmacy.Though mom-and-pop
stores have steadily disappeared across the American landscape over the
past three decades as the mega chain methodically expanded, there was at
least always a Wal- Mart left behind to replace them. Now the Wal-Marts
are disappearing, too.“I was devastated when I
found out. We had a pharmacy and a perfectly satisfactory grocery store.
Maybe Wal-Mart sold apples for a nickel less,” said Barb Venturi, mayor
pro tem for Oriental, with a population of about 900. “If you take into
account what no longer having a grocery store does to property values
here, it is a significant impact for us.”Oriental
is hardly alone. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said on Jan. 15 it would be
closing all 102 of its smaller Express stores, many in isolated towns,
to focus on its supercenters and mid- sized Neighborhood Markets. The
move, which will begin by the end of the month, was a relatively quick
about-face. As recently as 2014, Wal-Mart was touting the solid
performance of its smaller stores and announced plans to open an
additional 90.That’s a big problem for small
towns, often with proportionately large elderly populations. For the
older folks of Oriental -- a retirement and summer vacation town along
the inter-coastal waterway -- the next-nearest grocery and pharmacy is a
50-minute round-trip drive.Wal-Mart says it is sensitive to the dislocations its business decisions are causing.“In
towns impacted by store closures, we have had hundreds of conversations
with elected officials and community leaders to discuss relevant issues
and we are working with communities on how we can be helpful,” said
Wal-Mart spokesman Brian Nick.Wal-Mart has been
under increasing pressure lately as sales in the U.S. have failed to
keep up with rising labor costs. It’s also been spending more on its Web
operations. In October, the company announced that profit this year
would be down as much as 12 percent. The outlook contributed to a share
decline of 29 percent during the past 12 months.“It
is more important now than ever to review our portfolio and close the
stores and clubs that should be closed,” Wal- Mart’s Chief Executive
Officer Doug McMillon said in a statement on the company’s website.Shuttered StoresTowns
like Clearwater, Kansas, and Merkel, Texas, are among those hit by
Wal-Mart closures. In Godley, Texas, with a population of roughly 1,000,
Wal-Mart opened a small store just a year ago. Within months, the only
other grocery store in town -- Brookshire Brothers, part of an
employee-owned regional chain -- shut its doors. Now with Wal-Mart gone,
the closest full- service grocery store is about a 20-minute drive
away.In some cases, closed businesses may reopen
now that Wal- Mart has left. In Merkel, the Lawrence Brothers grocery
store, which closed two months ago, is planning to reopen now that Wal-
Mart is packing up, said Jay Lawrence, head of the regional chain in
Texas and New Mexico.Resident of Oriental, where
some city officials originally tried to block Wal-Mart from opening, are
hoping for a similar outcome now that the megastore is gone. But for
the moment the damage has been done, they say.Renee
Ireland Smith, who ran Town’n Country, said the store immediately saw
sales fall by 30 percent once Wal-Mart opened in May 2014. Whenever her
store cut prices, Wal-Mart would reduce its prices even more. Smith’s
mother, who owned the store, invested $100,000 in savings into the
doomed effort. But by October, the family decided to cut its losses and
close the business.“They ruined our lives,” said Smith of Wal-Mart. “They came in here with their experiment and ruined us.” 4951
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deltadawn Active Indicator LED Icon 8
~ 8 years ago   Jan 25, '16 8:23pm  
Vampires 4951
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mm4731 Active Indicator LED Icon 13
~ 8 years ago   Jan 25, '16 8:37pm  
[ Removed By Request. ] 4951
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OldGuy Active Indicator LED Icon 7
~ 8 years ago   Jan 25, '16 8:48pm  
It always gets me when they say "the company announced that profit this year
would be down as much as 12 percent." They're still making a good profit. They are also making many changes  that you may not hear about. Yeah they are going to raise some pay a little, but back several yrs ago they stopped paying a premium for working Sunday. The employees hired prior would be grandfathered, but now all those who have stayed, making a career of it, will now have it taken away.I've also heard that before long if you need to return an item, it will have to be approved through the main office. 4951
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OldGuy Active Indicator LED Icon 7
~ 8 years ago   Jan 25, '16 8:54pm  
How is it Wal marts fault? The residents of those towns made the choice to spend their money at Wal mart and not the mom and pop shops. They are the reason the smaller stores closed
 
@mm4731:  In the small towns the per capita income is such that people need to buy at the best prices available. Therefore, Walmart knowing this, only needed to keep their prices lower to pull in the people. Walmart is most definitely the reason. The Mom & Pop shops just couldn't compete.
4951
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Safety44 Active Indicator LED Icon 5
~ 8 years ago   Jan 25, '16 8:56pm  
Don't worry folks, it's not over yet.
 
Dollar General is pushing Walmart's panic button and adding small stores all over the USA.
 
Look for Walmart to start dropping out of site.
Kroger is moving forward in populated areas and Dollar General in the less populated areas.
 
Sam Walton's son is a bare facts economist...make a profit or I'll shut you down. I know numerous Walmart employees and they are each aware of the ranking of the stores they work at. Walmart, focused on profitability for Walton, the h*ll with the public. (Sound familiar?). 4951
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mm4731 Active Indicator LED Icon 13
~ 8 years ago   Jan 25, '16 9:07pm  
[ Removed By Request. ] 4951
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ET Active Indicator LED Icon 17
~ 8 years ago   Jan 25, '16 9:20pm  
Welcome to capitalism, nobody said it was going to be bloodless. Oriental is a town of only 900 people of which probably 200 actually shop.  Unless there is a pull from a wide area, somebody made a serious miscalculation - any one of the neighborhoods in KW has way more people than that.  Looking at the prime waterfront location of Oriental, I am guessing it won't be long before somebody fills in. 4951
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OldGuy Active Indicator LED Icon 7
~ 8 years ago   Jan 25, '16 9:24pm  
Within months, the only
other grocery store in town -- Brookshire Brothers, part of an
employee-owned regional chain -- shut its doorsPractically straight across Hwy 59 from Brookshire Brothers in New Caney is a large area of wooded land...guess who owns it...
 
Loading Image... 4951
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OldGuy Active Indicator LED Icon 7
~ 8 years ago   Jan 25, '16 9:28pm  

@OldGuy: they got by before Wal mart opened its doors.
 
 
@mm4731: Duh...
4951
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ET Active Indicator LED Icon 17
~ 8 years ago   Jan 25, '16 9:33pm  
You always got to look deeper at these puff pieces. Before we boohoo this too much, Oriental has a median home price of $340,000, which compares to Kingwood's median house price of $215,000.  Take both numbers with a grain of salt, but this is not some sleepy backwater we're talking about, this is pricey waterfront area property. 4951
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ET Active Indicator LED Icon 17
~ 8 years ago   Jan 25, '16 9:38pm  
Practically straight across Hwy 59 from Brookshire Brothers in New Caney is a large area of wooded land...guess who owns it...
 
@OldGuy: So really, what's wrong with that?I've been in several Brookshire stores, they could use some competition.
4951
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OldGuy Active Indicator LED Icon 7
~ 8 years ago   Jan 25, '16 9:47pm  
@OldGuy: So really, what's wrong with that?I've been in several Brookshire stores, they could use some competition.
 
@ET: Nothing is wrong with it, but that Brookshire store needs no competition. The other store, Food Town, pulls in most of the local business. Brookshire Brother stores are basically employee owned and if Walmart did build there, I'm sure they couldn't stay in business. Not sure Food Town could either.
4951
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beadweaver Active Indicator LED Icon 8
~ 8 years ago   Jan 25, '16 9:58pm  

- - - - - - - -
>> Practically straight across Hwy 59 from Brookshire Brothers in New Caney is a large area of wooded land...guess who owns it...
 
@OldGuy: So really, what's wrong with that?I've been in several Brookshire stores, they could use some competition.
 
@ET:
 
I went to the one in New Caney. The smell and the looks of their produce chased me out. 4951
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mm4731 Active Indicator LED Icon 13
~ 8 years ago   Jan 26, '16 4:38am  
[ Removed By Request. ] 4951
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allymansfield Active Indicator LED Icon 11
~ 8 years ago   Jan 26, '16 7:04am  
It's not just Walmart who does this. Home Depot and lowes do the same thing to smaller barware shops. It's the nice thing about being a big chain, safety in numbers. It's unfortunate for the small business but as other posters said, it's the shoppers to blame. That is why I don't sell my products in sites like Amazon, it's just not worth it. 4951
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