Walmart

mackruss · **Posted:** Thu Sep 30, 2010 10:19 am

Hey folks

Don't know if this is good or bad news, Walmart have acquired two large wholesalers in South Africa and intend opening their doors shortly.

What can we expect from them, decent prices on lubricants and other goods or is it not worth the excitement :rockon:

click23 · **Joined:** Thu May 11, 2006 9:22 am **Posts:** 309

If they open Super Walmarts like they have in the US you can expect to go in for 7 quarts of oil and walk out with a new checking account, a hair cut, a new pair of contacts, 4 foot long Subway sandwiches for dinner, 2 weeks worth of groceries, a few new CDs, a pair of pants, 3 gallons of paint, and the tires rotated on your Jeep. The you get home and realize you forgot the oil and have to go back, and this is the start of the downward spiral. I truly believe it is their evil master plan.

mackruss · **Posted:** Thu Sep 30, 2010 10:52 am

Is that because their sales people are highly qualified and trained and grab you when you enter the store :lol:

Sounds like a lot of the retailers here are going to close their doors when this happens, do they carry all the big name brands :?:

linewarbr · **Posted:** Thu Sep 30, 2010 10:56 am

Quote:

. . . you can expect to go in for 7 quarts of oil and walk out with a new checking account, a hair cut, a new pair of contacts, 4 foot long Subway sandwiches for dinner, 2 weeks worth of groceries, a few new CDs, a pair of pants, 3 gallons of paint, and the tires rotated on your Jeep. The you get home and realize you forgot the oil and have to go back, and this is the start of the downward spiral. I truly believe it is their evil master plan.
If they open Super Walmarts like they have in the US you can expect to go in for 7 quarts of oil and walk out with a new checking account, a hair cut, a new pair of contacts, 4 foot long Subway sandwiches for dinner, 2 weeks worth of groceries, a few new CDs, a pair of pants, 3 gallons of paint, and the tires rotated on your Jeep. The you get home and realize you forgot the oil and have to go back, and this is the start of the downward spiral. I truly believe it is their evil master plan.

^Lol^

Wal-Marts business plan is simply this: Be so large, and able to purchase goods in such bulk, that you can arm-wrestle vendors into the lowest prices on the planet. In turn, you can sell those goods at retail prices lower than anyone else. In the U.S., that has made their stores overly large, thus what the above poster stated - you go in for contact solution and come out with $150 worth of stuff. But if you can be disciplined (it helps to go through the garden or automotive entrances) and go directly to what you need and buy only that, you will find a good selection and a good price. Here they have the best price on Mobil 1 5W-40 Turbodiesel Truck oil by about $4/ gallon over any other retailer.

Joe Romas · **Posted:** Thu Sep 30, 2010 12:08 pm

That's where I get my Shell Rotella 5w40 full synthetic :mrgreen:

But it is real easy to end up getting more then you went after :-)r

click23 · **Joined:** Thu May 11, 2006 9:22 am **Posts:** 309

mackruss wrote:

Is that because their sales people are highly qualified and trained and grab you when you enter the store :lol:

That is even funnier than my post.

Unless you go to automotive, jewelry or electronics, good luck find and associate, and if you do they are probably from a department half way across the store. I heard some people locally saying that our walmart has cut back on employees and they have one person on duty to cove 4 or 5 departments at a time

stoutdog · **Posted:** Thu Sep 30, 2010 12:54 pm

mackruss wrote:

Is that because their sales people are highly qualified and trained and grab you when you enter the store :lol:

Sounds like a lot of the retailers here are going to close their doors when this happens, do they carry all the big name brands :?:

Sales people? What sales people? :-)r

Yes, they carry lots of big name brands. The reason I don't shop at Walmart, though, is exactly what you stated - they force local retailers out of business. I suck it up and pay the extra couple bucks to support my local plant nursery, grocery store, etc.

SLS · **Posted:** Thu Sep 30, 2010 1:10 pm

Watch the falling prices. That's the tag that has the next price increase on it! That way you think you got a bargain.
If you like Chinese crap you will love walmart............

LibertyCRD · **Posted:** Thu Sep 30, 2010 1:44 pm

linewarbr wrote:

Quote:

. . . you can expect to go in for 7 quarts of oil and walk out with a new checking account, a hair cut, a new pair of contacts, 4 foot long Subway sandwiches for dinner, 2 weeks worth of groceries, a few new CDs, a pair of pants, 3 gallons of paint, and the tires rotated on your Jeep. The you get home and realize you forgot the oil and have to go back, and this is the start of the downward spiral. I truly believe it is their evil master plan.
If they open Super Walmarts like they have in the US you can expect to go in for 7 quarts of oil and walk out with a new checking account, a hair cut, a new pair of contacts, 4 foot long Subway sandwiches for dinner, 2 weeks worth of groceries, a few new CDs, a pair of pants, 3 gallons of paint, and the tires rotated on your Jeep. The you get home and realize you forgot the oil and have to go back, and this is the start of the downward spiral. I truly believe it is their evil master plan.

^Lol^

Wal-Marts business plan is simply this: Be so large, and able to purchase goods in such bulk, that you can arm-wrestle vendors into the lowest prices on the planet. In turn, you can sell those goods at retail prices lower than anyone else. In the U.S., that has made their stores overly large, thus what the above poster stated - you go in for contact solution and come out with $150 worth of stuff. But if you can be disciplined (it helps to go through the garden or automotive entrances) and go directly to what you need and buy only that, you will find a good selection and a good price. Here they have the best price on Mobil 1 5W-40 Turbodiesel Truck oil by about $4/ gallon over any other retailer.

Exactly, and because of the enormous leverage they now have, many companies depend on their contract with Walmart to stay alive. So what ends up happening is they lower their quality in order to meet Walmarts price demands. So the next thing you know, name brands that were once respectable are now putting out utter junk. The Rubbermaid company is a good example. Their stuff used to be indestructable. Have you seen a Rubbermaid container lately? Better not put anything more than newspaper in it or it'll crack. Walmart is KILLING America by forcing tons of companies to reduce quality all in the name of quantity and price.

There is a huge anti-Walmart movement taking shape in the U.S. now. I have two co-workers that I can name off hand that will not step foot in a Walmart store. One of them says he hasn't been inside a Walmart in 7 years.

flman · **Posted:** Thu Sep 30, 2010 2:17 pm

mackruss wrote:

Hey folks

Don't know if this is good or bad news, Walmart have acquired two large wholesalers in South Africa and intend opening their doors shortly.

What can we expect from them, decent prices on lubricants and other goods or is it not worth the excitement :rockon:

You can expect lots of crappy quality products.
Expect to see all of the local business go out of business.
Expect every one that lives near you to have to settle for a low paying job at Walmart.

Me, I will not shop at "Wall Of China Mart". Back in the day when Sam was alive, he had a much different vision. He had a slogan, "Bringing it home to the USA" or something like that. Now that Sam is dead, we have a large trade deficit with China, Walmart pretty much took the lead in this considering the President that used to be the Governor of Arkansas could make all these deals with China go through for all of his sleazy communist friends in Arkansas.

So, if you like to see the trade deficit with China grow, shop at Walmart.
If you wanna save a few dollars on oil and see the other local retailers go out of business, Shop at Walmart.
If you want the money you spend to leave your community, and go to other states, countries and China, Shop at Walmart.

So yeah, mackruss, that is what is to be expected :roll:

Boiler · **Posted:** Thu Sep 30, 2010 2:53 pm

Yes to cheap oil. Unfortunately in 20 years everyone near it will make less money so it will still be the same percentage of your income, only you won't have any choice where to buy as the little guys will be gone.

You couldn't pay me to feet my children "great value" food from walmart. Under $2.00 for a gallon of milk? Gee, I wonder if the producers use steroids and hormones to get every last drop out of their cows. Do you think they do more than the bare minimum required?

Great value is BS. Should be called "cheapest around". I've been complaining about walmart for years, so much that I'm even getting tired of me...

It is never a good thing for a town to get a walmart.

jinstall · **Posted:** Thu Sep 30, 2010 5:17 pm

7 Quarts? No you cannot expect to buy 7 quarts at your Walmart in South Africa. They will not sell anything in quarts in South Africa.

Nor will you find anything in Gallons unless it is Imperial Gallons.

warp2diesel · **Posted:** Thu Sep 30, 2010 9:43 pm

When you see lots of self storage units opening up, you will know that Walmart has established them selves. People will buy so much crap from Walmart that they will have no place to put the crap and will need to rent a storage locker. Then they will have Yard Sales to sell the crap cheaper than Walmart. When they die, all the crap they bought from Walmart will be auctioned off hauled away and put in storage lockers.

mackruss, you will get rich if you build storage lockers to rent out. :ROTFL:

If they don't pay the rent or die and quit paying the rent, auction off the crap, pocket the money and rent the storage locker.

Closed down Prisons make good storage lockers, the fence is already up along with the razor wire and the guard shack makes a good office. :BANANA:

mikey1273 · **Posted:** Thu Sep 30, 2010 10:41 pm

I have a thing with wal-mart here. we have two in my hometown. the west end one I totally hate. they claim to not accept any returns one day when the last week or months ago they did. they treat every customer that brings anything back like potentoal shoplifter. I tried to return a computer game once I got as a gift cus it was one I had and never opened. The lady said no returns or exchnges. I explained it was a duplicate gift and showeed her the policy they had on software cd's and movies. that said I could return it if unopened for store credit or refund or the same if title if it was damaged. then she says well you could have taken the disc out and copied it. I showed her it was still sealed up. so she opens it... breaks the seal. I demanded to see her manager... who said its open you can't return it. I yelled at the mangager that her employee opened it and I want her manager now. I got the store manager who was still a jerk but took it back for store credit when I made threats to never shop at any wal-mart ever and call corprate on him. he did not offer any apology for treating me so bad either. I took the card with the refund to the east side walmart to shop. I have had other issues with that store and never shop there anylonger. its dirty and even the customers are orten dirty and nasty, plus the bus dropps the folks from the Ghetto off to shop there.

I will go to the eastside wal-mart if I need something. the area is better and there is no bus stop there. the employees are nicer and the place is cleaner and neater. I do perfer to shop at Target or other stores but will got to walmart if targat or Kohl's don't have what I need or want.

other places have better things but for some items no one can beat wal-mart and they sell darn near everything, plus here they are open 24/7 except thanksgiving and christmas.

I recomend shopping there only when no other place has what you need or is open when you need it.

JL Rockies · **Posted:** Thu Sep 30, 2010 11:23 pm

LibertyCRD wrote:

linewarbr wrote:

Quote:

. . . you can expect to go in for 7 quarts of oil and walk out with a new checking account, a hair cut, a new pair of contacts, 4 foot long Subway sandwiches for dinner, 2 weeks worth of groceries, a few new CDs, a pair of pants, 3 gallons of paint, and the tires rotated on your Jeep. The you get home and realize you forgot the oil and have to go back, and this is the start of the downward spiral. I truly believe it is their evil master plan.
If they open Super Walmarts like they have in the US you can expect to go in for 7 quarts of oil and walk out with a new checking account, a hair cut, a new pair of contacts, 4 foot long Subway sandwiches for dinner, 2 weeks worth of groceries, a few new CDs, a pair of pants, 3 gallons of paint, and the tires rotated on your Jeep. The you get home and realize you forgot the oil and have to go back, and this is the start of the downward spiral. I truly believe it is their evil master plan.

^Lol^

Wal-Marts business plan is simply this: Be so large, and able to purchase goods in such bulk, that you can arm-wrestle vendors into the lowest prices on the planet. In turn, you can sell those goods at retail prices lower than anyone else. In the U.S., that has made their stores overly large, thus what the above poster stated - you go in for contact solution and come out with $150 worth of stuff. But if you can be disciplined (it helps to go through the garden or automotive entrances) and go directly to what you need and buy only that, you will find a good selection and a good price. Here they have the best price on Mobil 1 5W-40 Turbodiesel Truck oil by about $4/ gallon over any other retailer.

Exactly, and because of the enormous leverage they now have, many companies depend on their contract with Walmart to stay alive. So what ends up happening is they lower their quality in order to meet Walmarts price demands. So the next thing you know, name brands that were once respectable are now putting out utter junk. The Rubbermaid company is a good example. Their stuff used to be indestructable. Have you seen a Rubbermaid container lately? Better not put anything more than newspaper in it or it'll crack. Walmart is KILLING America by forcing tons of companies to reduce quality all in the name of quantity and price.

There is a huge anti-Walmart movement taking shape in the U.S. now. I have two co-workers that I can name off hand that will not step foot in a Walmart store. One of them says he hasn't been inside a Walmart in 7 years.

I know of no "huge anti-Walmart" movement in the US; as a resident you'd think that I'd heard of it and since I haven't, you must be makin' stuff up again. Walmart is a great American success story having become the largest retailer on planet Earth employing lots of people and paying large amounts of corporate taxes and collecting lots of sales taxes for the states they are in. To blame a retailer for charging less because consumers want to spend less is also silly.

The idea that a vendor would reduce quality of a product as suggested is also silly... why would a vendor reduce quality to their biggest customer? Returns cut into the bottom line and can destroy you. I worked with a guy who then used to be and now is again a VP for Rockford Fosgate. He was in charge at the time (and designed) of the "Lightning Audio" brand when it went to Walmart. Walmart has people all over China so they knew exactly how much it cost to build the speakers and amplifiers Rockford was selling to them. After two years, Walmart went up to Dan (that's his name) and said "We know these amps cost you $ and we are now going to pay you this $... BUT we will ship the product in OUR boats and to our DC's in OUR trucks so you no longer have the burden and expense of getting the product to us". In this example Walmart reduced their cost because they were more efficient than Rockford Fosgate and got a better price from the vendor and the vendor's magins shrunk BUT didn't have to ship or warehouse Walmart's order.

FYI, any vendor doing business with any big box retailer (Best Buy, Circuit City RIP, CompUSA etc) is playing by that retailer's rules. Vendors accept these relationships and reduced margins largely because these retailers offer accessibility of the product specialty retailers cannot. The huge advertising budgets of these retailers often exceed what the vendors themselves can afford.

Just sayin'.

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Fri Oct 01, 2010 12:57 am

I think he's talking about Wakeup Wal-Mart

I typically stay away from Walmart electronics, I've found refurb markings on several electronic items I've purchased from Walmart, if I want something that was broke or defective at the point of manufacturing and fixed, I'll go to buy.com

mackruss · **Posted:** Fri Oct 01, 2010 4:29 am

Interesting comments about them

Who are their major competitors and how are they any different to Walmart or don't they have any competition.

warp2diesel · **Posted:** Fri Oct 01, 2010 7:39 am

For electronics, Pricewatch and Google find places that beat Walmart's price.

Their Food prices are not that great.

Over the counter pharmaceuticals are a good price.

Vitamins and food supplements are a good price.

Oil prices are better than Auto Parts Stores.

BTW: Walmart's attempt to make a entry into the UK and parts of Europe was a big flop when my son lived in Ireland.

Most of their competition that beats their prices is regional, in the Midwest we have Meijer who gives them a run for their money. Costco is North American and gives then a run for their money too as long as you are a member and want to buy a lot of crap, not an option for empty nesters who don't need to buy 10 KG of frozen steaks.

LibertyCRD · **Posted:** Fri Oct 01, 2010 8:08 am

I hate to break it to ya'.. but there IS an anti-Walmart movement going on. There are many books about it, TV documentaries, it's been on the news, the whole nine yards. It's been a documented fact that they drive quality away from products for the reasons I mentioned above. It's simple economcs. Walmart has to sell things cheap..that's their bread and butter. The companies selling products to Walmart therefore must meet Walmarts pricing criteria. Usually, they can't....unless they lower quality. It ruins products.

Their treatment of employees and particularly their truck drivers has also landed them in a lot of hot water. There is nothing wrong with wanting to grow your business and become sucessful but Walmart has turned into a great monster and many people are revolting against them now. If you don't live under a rock you've seen all this already. Like I said, just where I work alone I know of two people who won't even step foot in one of their stores now.

stoutdog · **Posted:** Fri Oct 01, 2010 11:18 am

LibertyCRD wrote:

I hate to break it to ya'.. but there IS an anti-Walmart movement going on. There are many books about it, TV documentaries, it's been on the news, the whole nine yards. It's been a documented fact that they drive quality away from products for the reasons I mentioned above. It's simple economcs. Walmart has to sell things cheap..that's their bread and butter. The companies selling products to Walmart therefore must meet Walmarts pricing criteria. Usually, they can't....unless they lower quality. It ruins products.

Their treatment of employees and particularly their truck drivers has also landed them in a lot of hot water. There is nothing wrong with wanting to grow your business and become sucessful but Walmart has turned into a great monster and many people are revolting against them now. If you don't live under a rock you've seen all this already. Like I said, just where I work alone I know of two people who won't even step foot in one of their stores now.

x2

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