Walmart observations

Predicting the demise of Sears & Kmart since 2017!
Alpha8472
Posts: 3929
Joined: February 24th, 2009, 8:55 pm
Been thanked: 79 times
Status: Offline

Re: Walmart observations

Post by Alpha8472 »

Definitely more people are shopping at Walmart these days. Every dollar counts now. Dollar stores are cheap, but the $1.25 price point made many items not as good a deal as before.
mbz321
Assistant Store Manager
Assistant Store Manager
Posts: 747
Joined: March 11th, 2010, 7:52 pm
Has thanked: 96 times
Been thanked: 54 times
Status: Offline

Re: Walmart observations

Post by mbz321 »

Alpha8472 wrote: August 20th, 2022, 12:30 pm Dollar stores are cheap, but the $1.25 price point made many items not as good a deal as before.
Given how prices have gone up everywhere else dramatically since Dollar Tree made the change, I feel most are used to the slightly higher prices there now. Food items are still a relatively poor value (as they were when priced at $1), but for everything else, the increase is negligible.
storewanderer
Posts: 14377
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 3:54 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 298 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Walmart observations

Post by storewanderer »

Found a Wal Mart today in Reno that found a couple pallets of summer flip flops (cheap foam ones that are worth $1, now retail at $2) and a bunch of "jelly" ones which were thicker plastic for women/kids with prices ranging 4.98-6.98 and a few at 7.98. They decided to blow them out at 10 cents.

This store also marked all of its markdown toys down to $1. Items regularly $30+ marked down to $1. Unbelievable.

They also marked down most of their garden area, again most items to $1, many items above $10 originally. Saw some $30+ items marked down to $1 in garden as well (tools, fertilizers, and such).

The past couple weeks this store had marked all of its markdown clothing to $1.

The store still has about 30 trailers out back and beside the building. It is a real mess back there. There are pallets of stuff just sitting out back not even in the trailers every time I stop.

Also it seems store manager vacancies are not isolated to Wal Mart banner. The Reno Sam's Club now has the infamous "TBD" as the manager.
buckguy
Store Manager
Store Manager
Posts: 1003
Joined: January 31st, 2017, 10:54 am
Has thanked: 3 times
Been thanked: 61 times
Status: Offline

Re: Walmart observations

Post by buckguy »

mbz321 wrote: August 19th, 2022, 6:16 pm
storewanderer wrote: August 19th, 2022, 12:45 am Wal Mart posted excellent profits this week. Despite the excessive inventory and giant markdowns the company is still extremely solid financially. That high grocery volume (and all the price increases taken) seem to be a way to just mint money...
I've seen countless articles saying how more people in middle-upper income brackets that traditionally don't shop at Walmart are switching over--trying to stretch dollars due to inflation.
Walmart beat the expectations it set a few weeks ago, but if you beyond that headline, it doesn't look so great, especially after their dismal first quarte. Their sales increase is below the rate of inflation and most of it is coming from food which isn't very profitable and their earnings are down overall. Sam's has been doing well but its mostly from food and fuel. With gas prices dropping, that's not going to be helpful. The idea that better off people are "flocking" to Walmart comes from Walmart and not anyone else--they're probably getting a small shift in their clientele and if the Great Recession provides useful history, it won't last long and if people were really "flocking" they'd be looking over the marked down better clothing while cherry picking the groceries.

Target really suffered this quarter because of excess inventory and their one bright spot was food which doesn't help their profits.

https://www.retailtouchpoints.com/topic ... ery-growth

https://www.investors.com/news/walmart- ... or-retail/

https://www.supermarketnews.com/retail- ... s-expected
storewanderer
Posts: 14377
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 3:54 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 298 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Walmart observations

Post by storewanderer »

buckguy wrote: August 21st, 2022, 7:01 am
Walmart beat the expectations it set a few weeks ago, but if you beyond that headline, it doesn't look so great, especially after their dismal first quarte. Their sales increase is below the rate of inflation and most of it is coming from food which isn't very profitable and their earnings are down overall. Sam's has been doing well but its mostly from food and fuel. With gas prices dropping, that's not going to be helpful. The idea that better off people are "flocking" to Walmart comes from Walmart and not anyone else--they're probably getting a small shift in their clientele and if the Great Recession provides useful history, it won't last long and if people were really "flocking" they'd be looking over the marked down better clothing while cherry picking the groceries.

Target really suffered this quarter because of excess inventory and their one bright spot was food which doesn't help their profits.

https://www.retailtouchpoints.com/topic ... ery-growth

https://www.investors.com/news/walmart- ... or-retail/

https://www.supermarketnews.com/retail- ... s-expected
Wal Mart posted a comparable store sales gain of 6.5%. That is quite close to the reported inflation statistic, if you find it accurate or relevant to this discussion. But it is the reported statistic, so let's go with it. Target posted a comparable store sales gain of 2.6%. That is quite a bit further off from the reported inflation statistic. I think these two stores have increased prices close to 25% on many consumable goods in the past year; increases in other categories have not been that much across the board and more varied (some categories little to no increase at all, etc.). So you are right they are both treading water here when it comes to this measure, but still, Wal Mart is FAR ahead of Target.

Also do not think Wal Mart is losing money on groceries. This is not what they are doing. Wal Mart is taking a good mark up on groceries now. They are no longer selling groceries at a loss to bring people in to buy non food. That is over. Increased food volume is not going to pressure their profits much (sure they will make less money selling $1 million of food than they'd make selling $1 million of clothing at the tagged price...) because the volume is so much higher in food that the numbers work and the food sales fuel huge profits for them.

Sam's is doing very well across its categories. Go spend some time in some Sam's Stores. Things there are radically different than they were 3 years ago. It doesn't even feel like the same store. They have much more to offer now on the non food side than they ever have before. I am not seeing major markdowns there either. I actually think they do a better job on some perishables than Costco (produce and frozen/dairy) and while their meat isn't as impressive as Costco it is actually quite a good program. Their bakery is poor but that is what it is and probably not very important for sales; Costco loses money on bakery anyway but can't take parts of it away that are unprofitable because doing so would upset customers; Sam's bakery is practically closed at this point it is doing so little product. I am hearing some customers who previously shopped Costco (drove by Sam's to get there) have started to go to Sam's and use the pick up feature/curbside and don't go to Costco at all anymore due to the store being inconvenient and overcrowded for them. Obviously there is a set of customers in other parts of town that Sam's single location (vs. Costco's three locations) is inconvenient for and they would have no reason to drive past Costco (or potentially two Costcos) to get to Sam's. But that is nothing new. Sam's has historically underperformed, significantly. Sam's basically has nowhere to go but "up." Many people will drive past Sam's to get to Costco historically but as of late that seems to be changing some, in Sam's favor. Sam's doesn't need to capture that many new customers to have a significant impact on their business either. Again, nowhere to go but "up" for Sam's. But they are making definite progress.

Target- terrible report. Unbelievable how bad profitability came in. Target has serious problems. Go to some Target Stores and make observations of the employees, appearance of the departments, in-stock, customer interactions at places like the return area, and observe what the employees talking to each other on the sales floor are saying to each other. Go over to the Target Reddit and read the posts. I think Target got very arrogant in the past couple of years during COVID, fueled by the time period when malls were closed but Target was open, and started to believe they were the ONLY place anyone would shop. Target tried to show the customers- you will take what we want to sell you, whatever junk it is, overpriced, and you will like it. The customers showed Target otherwise. Luckily customers do still have many choices. A customer can avoid all of the chains we are discussing in this message entirely and still have many choices.
Alpha8472
Posts: 3929
Joined: February 24th, 2009, 8:55 pm
Been thanked: 79 times
Status: Offline

Re: Walmart observations

Post by Alpha8472 »

The local San Francisco Bay Area Walmart that lost most of its shopping carts has gotten new mini shopping carts. These are the tiny 2 basket ones. Now the homeless will not steal them since they cannot hold an entire person's personal belongings.

It is not very convenient if you need to buy a 24 pack of water.
storewanderer
Posts: 14377
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 3:54 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 298 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Walmart observations

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: August 24th, 2022, 10:42 am The local San Francisco Bay Area Walmart that lost most of its shopping carts has gotten new mini shopping carts. These are the tiny 2 basket ones. Now the homeless will not steal them since they cannot hold an entire person's personal belongings.

It is not very convenient if you need to buy a 24 pack of water.
You'd be surprised how those small 2 basket carts tend to disappear. Smiths loses a ton of them. It is difficult to figure out what is even happening to them but they disappear like crazy. I've never seen those in a Wal Mart. I've seen them come and go from Safeway (probably having the same issue as Smiths).
Alpha8472
Posts: 3929
Joined: February 24th, 2009, 8:55 pm
Been thanked: 79 times
Status: Offline

Re: Walmart observations

Post by Alpha8472 »

Are they being sold for scrap metal?
storewanderer
Posts: 14377
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 3:54 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 298 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Walmart observations

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: August 26th, 2022, 12:32 am Are they being sold for scrap metal?
I have no idea... you may be on to something here. Smiths standard full size grocery carts are plastic carts, however these small 2 basket carts are metal.

I think some folks who live in apartments and walk to the store love to take them home after shopping since they are smaller and lighter than a normal cart.
TW-Upstate NY
Shift Manager
Shift Manager
Posts: 421
Joined: May 11th, 2009, 6:09 pm
Been thanked: 4 times
Status: Offline

Re: Walmart observations

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

Spoke to a friend of mine yesterday and his wife mentioned something that I thought was quite surprising. She was shopping at a local Wal-Mart sometime this week and was told by the cashier that starting Oct. 1st., they are totally doing away with bags and you'll have to bring your own reusable bags or presumably purchase them there. Could there be any validity to this? I'm located in New York state and I know New Jersey has or is going to have a total bag ban but this is the first I've heard of it here.
Post Reply