Walmart to reinvent the mom and pop general store?

[HysteryDiagnosis]

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/06/03/walton-family-faces-a-tough-decision-about-walmarts-ceo/?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl1|sec1_lnk3|68334

Walmart's annual shareholder meeting is Friday, and sure to be discussed will be the news that earnings for the last quarter weren't very good. Net sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2012, which ended April 30, were $103.4 billion, an increase of 4.4% from $99 billion in the same quarter a year ago. Income from continuing operations attributable to Walmart (WMT) for the quarter was $3.4 billion, up 3.8% from the first quarter last year.

Worse than the overall modest gains for the world's largest retailer is the fact that same-store sales for the flagship U.S. operations were down 1.1%

Walmart has tried several initiatives to turn around its domestic operations. All have failed. The latest plan is to open smaller Walmart Express outlets. These locations will be about 10% the size of normal Walmart stores, and will stock primarily food and general merchandise. At the same time, Walmart's Sam's Club unit will begin to offer more groceries.

[NYC_SKP]

1. Well, it had to happen.

This is what happens to an unsustainable growth economic model.

Double digit growth is 'expected', if you're not growing then you're dying.

So you encourage more sales, expand your line, take a greater share of the market.

Then that's not enough, staying profitable isn't enough if you aren't also growing.

So you start snatching up competitors, buying them out or putting them out of business to get that growth year to year.

And then it's over.

You're the only game in town and people are buying all they can buy already.

The irony is that this new plan is to emulate the very types of business that they destroyed; the small independent grocer (well, and hardware store, and nursery, and clothing store, and office supply, and auto supply, etc...)

Tough shit Walmart.

:puke:

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. +100, nailed it. n/t

[xchrom]

4. Indeed. Nt

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. +100

[Brickbat]

3. "Reinvent," my ass. They'll use it to mop up the towns that until now have been too small for Wal-

Mart to care about. Fuck 'em.

[LiberalLoner]

6. I am becoming ever more convinced we have to go outside the economy, have to do as

much under-the-table bartering as we can, trading, etc. I think we have to, wherever we can, grow our own vegetables, etc.

I am thinking more and more we have to starve the capitalism beast.

They said they wanted government small enough to drown in the bathtub? (Along with our good standards of living, worker protections, education for every child, etc. etc. etc.) Well then let's decide that we want to make the predatory style of capitalism small enough to drown in the bathtub!

I've been trying today to see if I could think like a right-winger. "Why send children to school when it's so much more profitable to harvest their organs for resale instead?"

Have I got that about right, or not evil enough yet?

[tridim]

5. Mom and Pop Inc.

Now with lobbyists!

[formercia]

7. The Wally World version of Amway

..another Evil Empire.

[OHdem10]

8. Businesses like WalMart appear to finally recognize that

Globalization and Poor Trade Policies in US are
pushing living standards downward, and they are
adjusting likewise.

They see the handwriting on the wall. No improvement
in employment for a long long time means many of their
regular customers have no job and will not have a good
paying job for years.

Until something is done about our huge TRADE DEFICIT,
HIGH GAS PRICES and we end the wars, our economy is
going to struggle and the UNEMPLOYMENT RATE WILL REMAIN
HIGH. Professor Morrisey

UK's AUSTERITY PROGRAM has Britain teetering on the verge
of a serious Double DIP. They cut too deep and too soon.
Did not wait long enough to determine they were in a real
recovery. CONGRESSMEN and WOMEN in the USA had better take
note.

EU is in a sluggish mode. Globalization, we are all dependent
on each other. Cannot buy many of our goods.

Yep Businesses are concerned and sitting on their money.
Their uncertainty is what is going on in the world.
They are not going to expand until they have customers.
They cannot have customers with Millions Unemployed.

Add it up and WalMart makes sense.

[Liberal_in_LA]

10. There are only a few Walmarts in big cities like LA, so most people get their groceries from their

local Vons / Ralphs / etc... These new Walmart expresses will attempt to take out these stores.

[Vinnie From Indy]

11. The relentless drive to follow the insane business model of trying to

squeeze the very last penny out of labor on a global scale regardless of ANY other concern could easily mean that Wal-Mart is simply slapping a shiny marketing label on their next prey - any small merchant that somehow escaped their decades long assault on the American worker and small business owner the first time through. I have no doubt that the site specialists assisting Wal-Mart will do their homework and carefully analyze each market area to determine which local merchant is ripest to pluck and then stock their store accordingly.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

13. I believe we can apply The Sorrow of Empire to their business model as well, they are

potentially the snake that eats its own tail.

[SoCalDem]

12. How quaint of them

They put these small companies/businesses OUT of business, and now they want to re-invent them...in a walmart-ian format, of course:puke:

[xfundy]

14. Fuck Mal-Wart.

Those unAmerican, pro-slave-labor bastards need to die as they have killed our nation and our families' chances to attain even the illusion of "The American Dream."

To paraphrase George Carlin, it's a dream, all right, because it ain't gonna happen.

[ngant17]

15. My brother works at WalMart

you get 1 hour of sick-time/vacation/whatever per month, that's 1.5 days/year. Sick time and vacation are considered the same for all intents and purposes.

Waltons, the Beasts of Bentonville, have generated billions of surplus profit the old fashioned American way: pay workers less, resist unionization, and restrict the work force to 28 hours per week (and make them do the extra work "off the clock), to avoid legal requirements of any insurance benefits.

[customerserviceguy]

16. I do not shop at Mal-Wart

Wish I had a good bumper sticker to show that to the world.

[marions ghost]

17. Walmart downsizing? In response to consumer input...

Maybe peoples time is worth more these days?

Home Improvement Warehouses make sense because of the bulkiness of the products but other than that I don't like shopping in warehouses. They take too long to deal with. Don't fit the more efficient, less complicated, more focused lifestyle I prefer. As far as cheapness, yeah the stuff may be cheaper but falls apart. The food is no better than other grocery stores.

Was in a huge new Walmart in a rural area where my Dad is from recently. It has killed all other stores and the old commercial strip is a wasteland. There are no alternatives nearby. Shopping in that store is a horrible experience. It is so big that if you forget something on the other side of the store, it's really not worth your time to go back for it. And if you don't find what you were looking for, you've wasted an hour just going into the place.