Walmart observations

Predicting the demise of Sears & Kmart since 2017!
mjhale
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by mjhale »

storewanderer wrote: September 17th, 2022, 11:54 am It amazes me this company can post record profits when I see stores that look the way they do, and the problems getting merchandise stocked, and excessive markdowns I've been seeing and benefiting from. Just amazing to me. This company is an amazing powerful machine that is so strong that it can absorb problems that would bankrupt many other retailers quickly.
I wonder what Walmart's debt load is. I'm thinking it isn't that high as a ratio of their sales. Plus the Walton family net worth is who knows how much. It seems that when we are reading about some retailer going down or having massive problems it is due to debt load. If Walmart's debt load is low as compared to sales they can keep chugging along even while doing some questionable stuff. I wonder if things got really dire at Walmart if the family would come in and bail things out. I don't know if the Walton family would want on their hands letting the largest private employer in the US go down in flames.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by jamcool »

Online sales, plus they are the only mass retailer choice in many places, since Target won’t go into small towns, and Kmart is all but dead, all of the regional rivals like Shopko and Alco are gone.
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norcalriteaidclerk
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by norcalriteaidclerk »

jamcool wrote:Online sales, plus they are the only mass retailer choice in many places, since Target won’t go into small towns, and Kmart is all but dead, all of the regional rivals like Shopko and Alco are gone.
There are fair number of small towns where Dollar General is the main mass merchandise option.

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Re: Walmart observations

Post by storewanderer »

norcalriteaidclerk wrote: September 18th, 2022, 8:58 am
jamcool wrote:Online sales, plus they are the only mass retailer choice in many places, since Target won’t go into small towns, and Kmart is all but dead, all of the regional rivals like Shopko and Alco are gone.
There are fair number of small towns where Dollar General is the main mass merchandise option.

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Dollar General should be having an impact on Wal Mart and I think it is. But I am not sure the impact is enough to do them in. Dollar General functions as a quasi convenience store/grocery store/mass merchant in these towns. Some of these Dollar General units do a very, very low daily sales volume (barely $2,000 a day) but survive. Many of them move a lot of food, and they have put a number of independent grocers out of business and seriously crippled many other independent grocers. Meanwhile the Wal Mart in the larger town 20-30 miles away always remains open and shows no signs of customer loss. Dollar General is a very strong retailer of consumable goods. They have the right mix and the right price. They appear to be in the process of discontinuing clothing other than very basic items like socks, but slightly expanding home type items in place of that (decor, pillows, and such).

Generally speaking Dollar General is not moving a lot of hardlines product other than "immediate need" type purchases. Someone needs a basic screwdriver, they will have it. Someone needs motor oil, they will have it, but forget air filters and such. These types of purchases are either going to a hardware store (many of which do still exist where these Dollar Generals are) or an auto parts store (depending what part of the country you are in these may also still exist where these Dollar Generals are). That brings to another interesting discussion- in a smaller town that has a hardware store, auto parts store, and Dollar General, what does anyone need to drive 20-30 miles to Wal Mart for? It has to be solely for price reasons.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by mjhale »

storewanderer wrote: September 18th, 2022, 11:41 am That brings to another interesting discussion- in a smaller town that has a hardware store, auto parts store, and Dollar General, what does anyone need to drive 20-30 miles to Wal Mart for? It has to be solely for price reasons.
I have relatives in a small rural town in north central PA. They are about 30 minutes from the closest Walmart and about 60 minutes from a larger town with the typical retail offerings. The small town has one grocery store (Currently Lingles, was BI-LO and Riverside, Originally an A&P), a Dollar General and a locally owned kind of five and dime with a heavier emphasis on hardware and outdoor supplies. This town is close to several state parks and recreation areas. There is another Dollar General about six miles to the west of town where there is another smaller settlement. Due to the length of drive to Walmart and the quality of the road (fine in good weather, but challenging in bad especially snow), a trip to Walmart is for items that aren't available in town or for stocking up to get a lower price than available in town. My relatives usually go to Walmart once a month. Most folks work outside of town so there is some stopping on the way home from work in the larger towns where many jobs are located. Also there is significant use of Amazon and other online sellers to get items that aren't available locally for those who don't or can't travel to Walmart or other options.
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Re: Walmart observations

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mjhale wrote: September 18th, 2022, 3:29 pm Also there is significant use of Amazon and other online sellers to get items that aren't available locally for those who don't or can't travel to Walmart or other options.
I think this is a bigger threat to small town merchants than Wal Mart ever was.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by mjhale »

storewanderer wrote: September 18th, 2022, 10:47 pm
mjhale wrote: September 18th, 2022, 3:29 pm Also there is significant use of Amazon and other online sellers to get items that aren't available locally for those who don't or can't travel to Walmart or other options.
I think this is a bigger threat to small town merchants than Wal Mart ever was.
Completely agree. Why drive 30+ minutes (in the case I described) to Walmart when you can have it delivered to your home or business? Also as you noted previously Walmart just doesn't have the penetration in many of these small towns outside of their core southern markets. These small towns tend to have good service from USPS because of the lower volume of stuff but also not suffering from the turnover than they do in larger metros. Around me Amazon delivers the majority of their packages in their own vehicles. Is that the case the case in rural areas?
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by BillyGr »

mjhale wrote: September 19th, 2022, 5:45 pm Completely agree. Why drive 30+ minutes (in the case I described) to Walmart when you can have it delivered to your home or business? Also, as you noted previously Walmart just doesn't have the penetration in many of these small towns outside of their core southern markets. These small towns tend to have good service from USPS because of the lower volume of stuff but also not suffering from the turnover than they do in larger metros. Around me Amazon delivers the majority of their packages in their own vehicles. Is that the case the case in rural areas?
Can't say I've seen any of the Amazon vehicles here (we would be sort of rural - a town of around 8,000 which is the largest town in the county, only the one small city is of similar size). We also have a warehouse in the next county but only a 10-minute drive from us (mainly located there due to easy access via highway to the larger cities 15 minutes or so the opposite way, and the main highways to much of the rest of the region).

I'm sure some in this development get stuff from them given the overall amount of deliveries - we do see FedEx and UPS most days, plus the mail of course (at least 99.9% of the days it is supposed to be delivered).

May just not be enough density on any given day to warrant their own person to deliver.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by ClownLoach »

Well I'm seeing that many Walmart stores in my area are trying to get Christmas and Halloween set, but they also are realizing that they're buried in Spring patio goods that never made it out of storage trailers. There are some items aggressively marked down and pallet stacked in the garden center while other items are mysteriously still full price. If you are looking to redecorate the backyard Walmart has some ridiculously low clearance prices right now.
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Re: Walmart observations

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ClownLoach wrote: September 22nd, 2022, 11:58 am Well I'm seeing that many Walmart stores in my area are trying to get Christmas and Halloween set, but they also are realizing that they're buried in Spring patio goods that never made it out of storage trailers. There are some items aggressively marked down and pallet stacked in the garden center while other items are mysteriously still full price. If you are looking to redecorate the backyard Walmart has some ridiculously low clearance prices right now.
This has been happening around Reno for the past month. It is largely over but some stores keep finding stuff. 3 stores are under remodel and those were absolute bonanzas. One remodel is about done. The other is a s--- show. The third started last week and I am confident will be the biggest s--- show yet as it is the smaller of the 3 stores and very busy.

You do have to buy quickly. One store did a bunch of crazy markdowns on garden (including BBQs, garden tools, fertilizers, soil, charcoal, various things that are sold all year), then they reverted everything back to full price about 5 days later after they had sold down the amount they desired to sell down.

brickseek.com can be used to check UPCs for prices between stores. It doesn't work for some of the longer UPCs.
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