Competitive and Supply Chain Strategies

Sam Walton’s extraordinary business strategies drove Walmart to its success and their key focus was customer satisfaction. As part of their customer centric initiatives Walmart had set up a unique pricing strategy with their “Every Day Low Prices” EDLP (Karen Robson, 2013). They would offer customers their daily needs at the lowest possible price to drive Walmart’s growth in the United States (Karen Robson, 2013) . Their pricing strategy was different than other major retailers in the U.S at the time; this provided an advantage towards rapid success and expansion (Karen Robson, 2013).

Sam Walton is the founder of Walmart that follows his own principle where, “true leadership depends on willing service.” Walmart was inspired by the early success of a dime store in 1950s that Walton owned. Sam opened Walmart in 1962 in Rogers, Kansas. Sam Walton thought of Walmart as a way to earn profits through volume of sales by making prices low as possible and give great service for the consumers. The strategy they built was based on a foundation where they provide the lowers prices anytime and anywhere. Competitors thought that Walmart would not succeed with this strategy, but in 1970s the business went public and Mr. Sam decided to make Walmart widespread around the nation to earn more publicity. Their business was not just relied on lower cost to attract the customer, but also the associates who work there and provided respect to individuals. The business was able to offer stocks at $16.50 per share in 1970 as it became a publicly traded company. This helps the company raise money to expand their business. In 1983, the business opened their first Sam’s Club to support small businesses and individuals who can sign up for membership to receive quality products at an incredible value. In 1988, they opened their first Walmart Supercenter which combines general merchandise and a full-scale supermarket which competes against other traditional supermarkets. This provides consumers the ability to go to just one-stop convenience

When a business can provide a lower cost, then the business can have the ability to lower their price. Providing a better pricing system, along with sharp value products can only increase the chance of growth and customers’ overtime.

Supply-chain management consists of developing a strategy to organize, control, and motivate the resources involved in the flow of services and materials within the supply chain. A supply chain strategy, an essential aspect of supply chain management, seeks to design a firm’s supply chain to meet the competitive priorities of the firm’s operations strategy.

Wal-Mart evolved from Sam Walton’s purpose for great price and great consumer service. “Mr. Sam,” as he was known, believed in management through service. The principle that true leadership depends on willing service was the standard on which Wal-Mart was built, and drove the choices the business has made for the past 50 years. So much of Wal-Mart’s past is attached to the story of Sam Walton himself, and so much of our future will be deep-rooted in Mr. Sam’s principles. Sam's rivals thought his plan for a thriving business couldn’t be built around low prices and great service. As it happened, the company's achievement went beyond even Sam's hopes. The company went public in 1970, and the profits funded a steady growth of the business. Sam recognized the rapid increase of Wal-Mart not just to the low prices that fascinated consumers, but also to his staff of workers. He depended on them to give customers the great buying experience that would

Research the responsiveness issue in supply chains (push, pull, and postponement strategies). Define each strategy and discuss the major differences between them. Name some companies that use each strategy. Do not just use the textbook for your answers.

The generic strategy that Wal-Mart employs is mainly a low-cost leader. This is evident by the company’s purpose: “saving people money so they can live better”. Wal-Mart believes that having a lower price matters to their customers. They continuously seek to reduce costs throughout their company, which will in turn reduce costs for

The competition of retail market is really intense, even the small retail stores can pose a threat to a product line if they offer the good products with cheaper prices.

Sam Walton emerged on the retail scene from humble beginnings. Before opening Walmart, Walton was experienced in the retail business, as he had successfully implemented a new type of strategy among his earlier store Walton’s Five & Dime. Walton hadn’t been seeing the returns that he had hoped for, and sought after a new strategy to

In 1950, Sam Walton opened Walton’s 5 & 10; a convenience store aimed at providing customers with low cost goods. Unlike other convenience stores of its time, Sam Walton gained a competitive advantage by implementing innovative business models within his operations and finance departments (complex supply chain management and low profit cost-cutting schemes, respectively). Over the next 65 years, Wal-Mart grew to be the largest corporation in the United States with over 5,000 stores and a staggering 1.2 million employees. In fact, Wal-Mart’s staff accounts for 1% of the United State’s working population (Blodget, 2010). Unfortunately, such an enormous presence, combined with negative reviews, has turned Wal-Mart into the

This summer my unit went and visited a distribution center ran by Wal-Mart. Although when you first walk in it looks like complete chaos. They are actually very organized and with the amount of business they are doing you understand why it looks that way. The big take from the inventory process is what is known as cross-docking, we also use this in the military. What this does is allow Wal-Mart to get their products out quickly. For example, if you have a truck of 20 washers and dryers that need to go to a specific place. Cross-docking will allow that truck to be processed as is and shipped to the location without having to download and see if you have those quantities etc. This will allow them to get that product out on the same truck. Another thing that was unique to Wal-Mart was the use of their own unique ERP software specific to their operation, instead of an commercial of the shelf software most companies can use. In my opinion this puts them a step above their

The market for groceries has been completely altered since Wal-Mart began to grow substantially. Charles Fishman makes it a point to show just how much of the grocery market Wal-Mart controls. In 2010, total sales were $419 billion (1). The supermarket industry is an oligopoly. An oligopoly is a market structure in which there are only a few firms and firms’ explicitly take other firms’ likely response into account. The amounts of businesses that have a major impact in this market are very few, definitely less than ten. When Wal-Mart first came into business, its success was dominantly determined by their response to other firm’s decisions or simply their prices. Sam Walton, Wal-Mart’s founder had started his strategic tactics as soon as Wal-Marts began to open. “The point of Wal-Mart was firmly established by store #2… ‘”if we could do a 10 percent discount versus the downtown drugstore we were king” (24). To this day Wal-Mart still prides itself on its low prices.

In the late 1940s, a man named Sam Walton was franchising Ben Franklin’s store located in Newport, Arkansas. As a retailer, Walton continuously was in search of suppliers with best deals on merchandise. Usually, if a retailer was able to get a deal from a wholesaler they would leave their store prices at the regular price and pocket the excess money. Being the innovator he was, Walton decided to pass the savings on to the consumer and make his money through the increased volume of sales. This understanding would become the foundation of Walton’s business strategy when he developed Walmart in 1962.

Price has always been the key strategy in Wal-Mart’s marketing strategy. The success of Wal-Mart’s low price philosophy and marketing campaigns has been instrumental to the company’s success in the past half century. It is clear that from Sam Walton’s first store in Bentonville, Arkansas in 1950 to the 6200 stores worldwide as of 2006, Wal-Mart has utilized the price strategy of the marketing mix to become one of the most successful companies in

Sam Walton opened the original Wal-Mart store in Roger, Arkansas in 1962. Walton was focused on having any impact in the lives of beneficial customers for a lifetime. "Sam Walton 's visionary power, close by times of accomplices focused on helping customers and gatherings save money and live better (Walmart Corporate. Our History)." This rich legacy describes who Wal-Mart is and what they do today. 52 years have passed, and Wal-Mart has stretched out to an overall business focus serving 26 countries, more than 160 Distribution Centers and 17,000 retail stores scattered all through the US. From the most punctual beginning stage in 1962 to present day, Wal-Mart has formed into what is suggested today as one of the best Supply Chain Companies in nearness. (Weebly. (n.d.).