Wal-Mart

[KJW]

Yes, I heard about the Chinese Hypermarts as well. I also heard in the office today that Wal-Mart might be trying to buy a Turkish grocer.

[Aporkalypse]

Getting into heavily islamic territory...fascinating. (Then again, in the UK W-M's in heavily islamic territory already.)

[KJW]

I wouldn't exactly call the UK heavily Islamic.

Turkey is pretty Westernized, more like Greece than Arab nations.

[mcheiss]

Turkey so far has been a bit ahead of its middle eastern counterparts in the islamic world.

[johnnydr87]

I think they're are several other middle eastern countries setting the pace such as UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, and even Bahrain.

[Aporkalypse]

Wal-Mart is drastically increasing its purchasing from India and is thought be considering entry into that market as well, which is interesting because we recently speculated on that here.

I was thinking yesterday about this...

Has any American retailer really every become successful outside the U.S. (aside from Canada, which doesn't count)?

I'm not sure they have. I also don't know how many have really tried. WM is taking some big risks but they could have a huge payoff. It will be interesting to see what happens. I'm not buying stock. Yet.

The inverse question is true as well. How many foreign retailers came into the U.S. and succeeded? The jury's still out on IKEA but I think they're doing well. Otherwise, I'm not sure.

[Mith242]

Wal-Mart is drastically increasing its purchasing from India and is thought be considering entry into that market as well, which is interesting because we recently speculated on that here.

I was thinking yesterday about this...

Has any American retailer really every become successful outside the U.S. (aside from Canada, which doesn't count)?

I'm not sure they have. I also don't know how many have really tried. WM is taking some big risks but they could have a huge payoff. It will be interesting to see what happens. I'm not buying stock. Yet.

The inverse question is true as well. How many foreign retailers came into the U.S. and succeeded? The jury's still out on IKEA but I think they're doing well. Otherwise, I'm not sure.

[mcheiss]

The inverse question is true as well. How many foreign retailers came into the U.S. and succeeded? The jury's still out on IKEA but I think they're doing well. Otherwise, I'm not sure.

[Aporkalypse]

Yeah I saw that mentioned as well about India. It also answered the question why Wal-mart's presence in India isn't as large. Sounds like the government has been holding Wal-mart back. As far as retailers go I'm not quite sure. Obviously some American companies have done well overseas but I'm not sure if any American retailers have. Isn't Aldi a German company? Not sure how successful they are but they probably have more stores in Aerica than say IKEA. But of course IKEA has been limiting itself on that. In other Wal-mart news, they're expanding their generic drug program outside of Florida. I think they're expanding it to a dozen or so more states, one of which is Arkansas. I'm curious to see how this is going to affect other companies in Arkansas an din general as well.

[Mith242]

I'm a fan of the generic prescription program and I think it will have the desired effect for Wal-Mart. We've talked a bit before about the thread from Walgreen's and CVS and I think this puts them in a pickle. WM prices were already much better on medications, those outlets mostly offered convenience. WM, on the other hand, can afford to not make a profit on generics and make its money on a slight margin on name brands. Most importantly, it gets people in the store where I bet they spend an average of $25 on other items while they're there. That's smart "strategery". Plus, it helps people. It's "win, win".

[Aporkalypse]

I guess the other WM news item was the fact the informational meeting with investors and analysts (not the shareholder's meeting) will be in New York this year instead of Arkansas. Acxiom made a similar move earlier this year. WM is hopeful this will drum up more interest in its sagging stocks.

Here's an interesting article from Motley Fool - "Please Stop Picking On Wal-Mart" that made some excellent points...

Please Stop Picking On Wal-Mart

[Mith242]

I guess the other WM news item was the fact the informational meeting with investors and analysts (not the shareholder's meeting) will be in New York this year instead of Arkansas. Acxiom made a similar move earlier this year. WM is hopeful this will drum up more interest in its sagging stocks.

Here's an interesting article from Motley Fool - "Please Stop Picking On Wal-Mart" that made some excellent points...

Please Stop Picking On Wal-Mart

[Lady Celeste]

I went to the new urban Wal-Mart in Midtown Atlanta on Sunday.

All I can say is that the architecture is the best I have seen on a Wal-Mart. This is probably due to the fact that the Wal-Mart is built into a slope. You read me right into a slope. Atlanta is very hilly. It has a very pretty brick exterior and a nice discrete Wal-Mart sign. There is parking on top of the building and there is a four story parking deck next to it. You can enter the Wal-Mart and never have rain touch you or your items...unless of course you opt for the skyline view by parking on top of the store. You could almost miss it if you are unfamiliar with the lifestyle center where it is located.

The interior was very nicely done. The hardwood floors were not throughout but were expansive. Boy was it crowded but I assume that to be because this was supposed to be an urban Wal-Mart and people wanted to see it with their own eyes. The store just seemed more nicely stocked than I last remember a Wal-Mart being stocked. While their clothing still was not my cup of tea, I can appreciate the attempt to upgrade. The grocery part was really nice. It reminded me of Whole Foods in a way....perhaps maybe an upscale Kroger or Publix. The prices were very good and the food looked really fresh. Again, I suppose this to be because the store is new. I will have to make my final assessment when I go back in a year.

All in all I give Wal-Mart an A for this store. If this is what new Wal-Marts will be like in the Atlanta area then they will probably have less resistance to expansion here. Will I go to this Wal-Mart again? Well it is in Midtown and I live in the far north suburbs so probably not...but if I have guest in town, this would be the one I would take them to...that's assuming one of my guest would be bold enough to ask me to take them to a Wal-Mart, lol.

I eagerly await the new urban Super Target opening near by in the Atlantic Station community. At least I will get to compare whose urban effort was the best. Right now, looking at architectural "coolness" and execution, Wal-Mart will be hard to beat.

[masons_dad1]

I went to the new urban Wal-Mart in Midtown Atlanta on Sunday.

All I can say is that the architecture is the best I have seen on a Wal-Mart. This is probably due to the fact that the Wal-Mart is built into a slope. You read me right into a slope. Atlanta is very hilly. It has a very pretty brick exterior and a nice discrete Wal-Mart sign. There is parking on top of the building and there is a four story parking deck next to it. You can enter the Wal-Mart and never have rain touch you or your items...unless of course you opt for the skyline view by parking on top of the store. You could almost miss it if you are unfamiliar with the lifestyle center where it is located.

The interior was very nicely done. The hardwood floors were not throughout but were expansive. Boy was it crowded but I assume that to be because this was supposed to be an urban Wal-Mart and people wanted to see it with their own eyes. The store just seemed more nicely stocked than I last remember a Wal-Mart being stocked. While their clothing still was not my cup of tea, I can appreciate the attempt to upgrade. The grocery part was really nice. It reminded me of Whole Foods in a way....perhaps maybe an upscale Kroger or Publix. The prices were very good and the food looked really fresh. Again, I suppose this to be because the store is new. I will have to make my final assessment when I go back in a year.

All in all I give Wal-Mart an A for this store. If this is what new Wal-Marts will be like in the Atlanta area then they will probably have less resistance to expansion here. Will I go to this Wal-Mart again? Well it is in Midtown and I live in the far north suburbs so probably not...but if I have guest in town, this would be the one I would take them to...that's assuming one of my guest would be bold enough to ask me to take them to a Wal-Mart, lol.

I eagerly await the new urban Super Target opening near by in the Atlantic Station community. At least I will get to compare whose urban effort was the best. Right now, looking at architectural "coolness" and execution, Wal-Mart will be hard to beat.

[Mith242]

I went to the new urban Wal-Mart in Midtown Atlanta on Sunday.

All I can say is that the architecture is the best I have seen on a Wal-Mart. This is probably due to the fact that the Wal-Mart is built into a slope. You read me right into a slope. Atlanta is very hilly. It has a very pretty brick exterior and a nice discrete Wal-Mart sign. There is parking on top of the building and there is a four story parking deck next to it. You can enter the Wal-Mart and never have rain touch you or your items...unless of course you opt for the skyline view by parking on top of the store. You could almost miss it if you are unfamiliar with the lifestyle center where it is located.

The interior was very nicely done. The hardwood floors were not throughout but were expansive. Boy was it crowded but I assume that to be because this was supposed to be an urban Wal-Mart and people wanted to see it with their own eyes. The store just seemed more nicely stocked than I last remember a Wal-Mart being stocked. While their clothing still was not my cup of tea, I can appreciate the attempt to upgrade. The grocery part was really nice. It reminded me of Whole Foods in a way....perhaps maybe an upscale Kroger or Publix. The prices were very good and the food looked really fresh. Again, I suppose this to be because the store is new. I will have to make my final assessment when I go back in a year.

All in all I give Wal-Mart an A for this store. If this is what new Wal-Marts will be like in the Atlanta area then they will probably have less resistance to expansion here. Will I go to this Wal-Mart again? Well it is in Midtown and I live in the far north suburbs so probably not...but if I have guest in town, this would be the one I would take them to...that's assuming one of my guest would be bold enough to ask me to take them to a Wal-Mart, lol.

I eagerly await the new urban Super Target opening near by in the Atlantic Station community. At least I will get to compare whose urban effort was the best. Right now, looking at architectural "coolness" and execution, Wal-Mart will be hard to beat.

[Mith242]

Sounds like the nicest Wal-Mart to date. I sure wish we'd get something like that here, but Wal-Mart doesn't care about it's home turf since it already monopolizes NWA. It wasn't long ago that some of the worst Wal-Mart stores anywhere were right in Wal-Mart's own backyard. Oh wait that's when all Wal-Mart's were dumpy. My how times have changed.

I too am waiting for a SuperTarget to open in NWA, Benton County preferably, but that's just a dream so far with no announcement so far.

[masons_dad1]

I don't think I'd put it like that. The reason we don't have a store like that is because we aren't a huge urban area like Atlanta. I do imagine that if there was more competition it might make Wal-mart do make more of an effort. But I don't know of too many dumpy Wal-marts in NWA. Trust me I've seen some pretty old dumpy ones in small rural areas in southern and eastern Arkansas. But anyway back to competition, some of that has to do with bad decisions. Remember that Big K right across from Wal-mart's HQ? I mean come on, that was a pretty stupid location. Thta's a big reason why K-mart is in the shape it's in now. We do have a Target down here in Fayetteville and it seems to do quite well. Granted we probably have more of an anti-Walmart sentiment here in Fayetteville than the rest of NWA.

[Aporkalypse]

Here's an article about Wal-Mart's tarnished image from BusinessWeek:

BusinessWeek

[masons_dad1]

Here's a little trivia that some people might find interesting:

• 90% of Americans live within 15 miles of a Wal-Mart.

• At Wal-Mart Americans spend $36,000,000 every hour of every day.

• This works out to $20,928 of profit every minute!!!

• Wal-Mart will sell more by St. Patrick s Day (March 17th) than Target sells all year.

• Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot + Kroger + Target + Sears + Costco + K-Mart combined.

• Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people and is the largest private employer.

• Wal-Mart is the largest company in the history of the World.

• Wal-Mart now sells more food than Kroger & Safeway combined, and keep in mind they did this in only 15 years.

• During this same period, 31 Supermarket chains sought bankruptcy (including Winn-Dixie).

• Wal-Mart now sells more food than any other store in the world.

• Wal-Mart has approx 3,900 stores in the United States of which 1,906 are SuperCenters; this is 1,000 more than it had 5 years ago.

• This year, 7.2 billion different purchasing experiences will occur at a Wal-Mart store (Earth's population is approximately 6.5 billion)

[Aporkalypse]

Here's a little trivia that some people might find interesting:

• 90% of Americans live within 15 miles of a Wal-Mart.

• At Wal-Mart Americans spend $36,000,000 every hour of every day.

• This works out to $20,928 of profit every minute!!!

• Wal-Mart will sell more by St. Patrick s Day (March 17th) than Target sells all year.

• Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot + Kroger + Target + Sears + Costco + K-Mart combined.

• Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people and is the largest private employer.

• Wal-Mart is the largest company in the history of the World.

• Wal-Mart now sells more food than Kroger & Safeway combined, and keep in mind they did this in only 15 years.

• During this same period, 31 Supermarket chains sought bankruptcy (including Winn-Dixie).

• Wal-Mart now sells more food than any other store in the world.

• Wal-Mart has approx 3,900 stores in the United States of which 1,906 are SuperCenters; this is 1,000 more than it had 5 years ago.

• This year, 7.2 billion different purchasing experiences will occur at a Wal-Mart store (Earth's population is approximately 6.5 billion)

[masons_dad1]

Right now, I actually think Exxon-Mobil is the largest company. Of course, whether they're #1 or Wal-Mart is depends on the price of oil which changes the value of their oil reserves.

[Aporkalypse]

I don't think they're referring to largest revenue, but more to the number of employees and square footage. Exxon-Mobil only just barely passed Wal-Mart in revenue last year after the hurricanes in LA shut down a couple of their refineries and they started gouging Americans to increase their already very high profit margins. Imagine a company's profits going up after the loss of part of their operations. What they did is criminal and there should be some prosecutions.

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In other Wal-Mart news, I'm excited to say that Wal-Mart.com now offers "Free Shipping: Site to Store" in Northwest Arkansas (sorry to the rest of Arkansas), Alabama and California in addition to Texas, which has always had it. This is going to increase the profitability of Wal-Mart's online business and also bring more people into their stores that would not otherwise be inclined. The defunct Layaway Dept is now the "Site to Store" Pick-Up Dept in those stores.

[Aporkalypse]

It's been an awful week for Wal-Mart. Same-store earnings dropped for the first time in over a decade and are expected to in Dec as well despite a robust retail market otherwise (Target SS sales were up 7%). Lots of negative publicity about the failure of upscale clothing lines which apparently aren't selling at all. On top of it all, San Diego (the nations' 8th largest city) passed a law banning new stores over 90,000 SF that sell groceries as well as other items, effectively designed simply to prevent WM from entering the market.

It will be interesting to see what WM does to counter this but it certainly has a major image crisis.

[johnnydr87]

It will be interesting to see what WM does to counter this but it certainly has a major image crisis.

[Aporkalypse]

Indeed. I wonder how much other retailers funded the wake up wal-mart movements..

I can't say I'm against or for wal-mart...

We've been studying them in business class, and they did some amazing things to keep prices (amazing in their logistical nature, not moral). It's a fact that they are one of the main causes for outsourcing of jobs in america.