Walmart : Losing Retail Market

Question 1: What were the rights of Walmart, the employer, during these two organizing drives?

the superior tracking capability of RFID chips would reduce shrinkage and other forms of loss by up

Is Wal-mart the ideal store to shop it? Austrian economic and business professional Karen De Coster and banker Brad Edmonds believe that Wal-mart improves the lives of people in rural areas because it gives them access to a lifestyle that they would not have if Wal-mart did not exist.

We all know that both Walmart and Macys are two of the most popular stores, they both have different concepts of the customer experience have manage to divide the public right down the middle. Macy’s stores serves high-end clientele, Walmart has more relaxed and price friendly appeal to those of who are in the middle or even low income. Many middle income Americans shop at Walmart primarily because of their low prices, there are shoppers that gathers shop for the quality of Macys. Is just a matter of asking shoppers a question: Why Walmart vs Macys? What is more important quality or quantity for the shopper’s money? Depending at their answer could change the future of each store, and maybe each store could change their perspective towers their shoppers.

In 2005, Robert Greenwald released Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, a motion picture that divulges how Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., a wholesale department store established by Sam Walton in 1962, absconded from its chasten inaugurations, to ultimately progress and develop into a principal vendor of America, and soon afterwards the vastest transnational conglomerate on the planet, once one grounds their statistics on revenue. However, Greenwald undoubtedly affirms that the policies Wal-Mart has emplaced have not solely been detrimental to the already austere American economy, but also to the welfare of their personnel. Furthermore, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price congregates on various sociopolitical disputes that validate how Wal-Mart

In business, three major strategies comprising of cost leadership, differentiation, and focus strategies exist. The focus strategy emphasizes on providing services and products to a specified buyer group or market segment within a given geographic market. The differentiation approach is often defined as provision of services or products that are perceived to be unique in the market place. Wal-Mart emphasizes on the long-term strategy of cost leadership. Through this strategy, the company ensures that it offers customers with quality products at relatively lower prices than other providers in the industry. Through overall cost leadership strategy, Wal-Mart has been offering better quality products at a lower price than any competitor can offer. For the organization to achieve this goal, it has developed long-term supply chain management, which ensures that products are made available to the market at the required time (Enz, 2010).

The development of the Internet and more specifically the business website has seen brand recognition by consumers escalate to never before seen heights. Because of this brand recognition, it has become important for businesses to design their websites to reflect their overall marketing strategies. This is especially important in the retail world. All retail businesses have a similar overall marketing strategy of generating sales and retaining the customer for future sales. Most of the retail giants still greatly rely on the success of their brick and mortar stores to turn a profit. However, internet sales for these brick and mortar stores have increasingly risen over the last few years to compete with the retail stores like Amazon that are strictly internet based businesses. Brick and mortar retail stores, such as Walmart, Target, Kmart, and Nordstrom, have each designed their websites to reflect the overall retail marketing strategy as well as the individual marketing strategies that have made their brick and mortar businesses successful.

Costco is the best cost provider in the wholesale club category and the strategy is associated with Costco’s capabilities and resources, which includes; a streamlined supply chain, good supplier relationships, purchasing power, high sales volumes, quick inventory turnover, and excellent customer service. The three vital components of the company strategy are low pricing, limited product selection and high-end products acquired in closeouts and liquidations. While Costco strives to beat the competitors pricing, it also delivers exceptional value in its high-end offerings and customer service, giving consumers more for their money. Given its customers are the most affluent of all the warehouse clubs, with average incomes around $75,000 and this strategy works well for Costco. However, these customers are conscious not only about money but also value for the product, this fact is supported by the members who choose for executive

Best Buy, a familiar retailer in the technology world, is struggling to stay on top. Online and mass stores have cornered the market in terms of convenience, customer service and price matching. The recent closing of over two hundred stores alongside falling sales has experts predicting that the giant won’t be in business long. Using a results-only work environment (ROWE), Best Buy has removed the customer from the equation and forced many employees out. A marketing disaster, Best Buy must change its marketing strategy from sales-based to a customer-based to stay afloat.

The five generic competitive strategies are low-cost provider, broad differentiation, focused low-cost, focused differentiation strategy, and best-cost provider strategy. According to the textbook, “a company’s competitive strategy deals exclusively with the specifics of management’s game plan for competing successfully” (Gamble, 93).

To be the world 's largest low cost store that carries all types of merchandise for all possible consumers.

Stores like Wal-Mart are famous for keeping their prices so low. This is one reason why they are able to maintain a grip on the consumers of an area. They accomplish this by keeping the cost to produce and transport the goods low. In January, a study by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. found that, “an individual family could save $589 a year on groceries by shopping at a supercenter. Overall, shoppers could save $3.76 billion in merchandise nationwide.” (Blazier, A, 2004) A major reason they can keep prices lower than mom-and-pop run businesses is their ability to buy merchandise in bulk. Buying in bulk works the same way it does for a consumer. The more of a product that is purchased, the less the cost is per unit. Consumers see this every day when they go to stores like Sam’s Club or Costco. When they buy their merchandise in bulk, they are able to offer it to the consumer at a lower price. (Kale, 2011) This is what could eventually drive the mom-and-pop owned businesses out of the area, and draw a negative criticism from the public. The interesting thing about this criticism is that the public complains about Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. helps individuals around the globe spare cash and live better - at whatever time and anyplace - in retail locations, online and through their cell phones. Every week, more than 245 million clients and individuals visit our almost 11,000 stores under 65 flags in 28 nations and e-trade sites in 11 nations. With financial year 2015 net offers of $482.2 billion, Wal-Mart utilizes 2.2 million partners around the world. (Wal-Mart Corporate) Wal-Mart is a superpower in the business world and has been that way for 50+ years. Understanding how it got to this point and how it has maintained its successful business model starts with its

Over the past ten years, Walmart has been losing retail market share and their customers to competitors that can offer more reasonable prices at greater convenience to customers. Walmart is losing money to Amazon and other online shoppings sites (D’Onfro). These competitors can offer the same or better price for a better quality item. Amazon can guarantee free, two day shipping if the package meets their requirements (Order with Free Shipping). To collect real data for the inspiration for our idea we sent out a survey to every teacher and many students in the district. Cole and I had a total of 122 respondents, a majority of them were between the ages of forty one to fifty and were female. In one of the survey’s questions, several respondents wrote that they regarded Costco as a more superior retailer for a more potential shopping option. Respondent sixteen replied that the changes that must be made to Walmart for them to regularly shop there were “A higher quality in their goods while keeping the low prices, obviously that will be a hard thing to do but Costco manages to do it.” The marketing strategy of Costco is simple, sell goods in bulk for the lowest possible prices. This can be a strong competitive edge for these retailer because their customers feel they are saving money and time, by stocking up on what they need and will use. Altering the angle of the target customers can completely change what type of customers you can get. From a casual

1. What is the ethical dilemma facing Wal-Mart in this case ? Do Wal-Mart’s associates also face an ethical dilemma? If so, what is it ?