Thursday, November 21, 2013

The Walmart Monopoly

Pretty much anyone and everyone has heard of Walmart. Walmart is an American based retail corporation with countless chain stores around the nation. Servicing and selling everything from groceries, toys, cosmetics, and automotive services, Walmart gives a mass amount of goods and services to consumers. Combined with Walmart's slogan of "always low prices", Walmart has begun to build a reputation of being a one-stop shop with low prices. Walmart prides itself on having the lowest prices and even offering price matching, matching the price of a competitor if proof is shown. This type of simple system attracted consumers at large and keep them hooked due to the prices.

What I have found is that with mass quantities companies, quality is usually sacrificed. As a Walmart shopper myself I have found this to be true in some departments and not as prominent in others. When it comes to food, specifically produce, I am often dismayed by the amount of unripe and rotten fruits mixed together in the stands. However, Walmart's generic brand has often proven to be the more cost-effective choice when it comes to cosmetics and skin care products and often proves to be a staple item for me. This amount of variability within the store has caused me to become a fluctuating Walmart shopper. Coming to college, I made the change to Meijer, a store I had previously been unfamiliar with. However, overall Meijer has proven to be a more dependable company to me in terms of overall quality and service. Walmart's brand and reputation combined for me hasn't been one that has withstood my personal experience and instead has fallen second or worse to other competitors with common business strategies and goals. 

2 comments:

  1. I wonder why I missed this the first time through.

    Could it be that stores like Walmart cash in in certain product areas, while they lure customers into the store by what they deliver in other product areas? I used to buy some over the counter drugs at Walmart - they were cheaper than Walgreen's. But I did the bulk of my shopping elsewhere. Do you think most shoppers simply frequent one place and don't mix and match stores? If so, could that explain Walmart's behavior?

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    1. I personally think shoppers like to shop at one place to get everything all at once. I believe Walmart tries to market itself as a one stop shop so consumers can save time and effort by being able to do there whole week (or day/month/etc)'s worth of goods all at once.

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