STUDY OF SALES PROMOTION BY
WALMART
Submitted by
Vinita Chandak
Sushant Tantarpale
Dhananjay Shelke
Prerna Bathiya
Rahul Boke
MBA- IV SEM
SALES PROMOTION MANAGEMENT
Under the guidance of
Prof. Rashmi Khanzode
Through
The Head
DEPATRMENT OF USINESS ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT
SANT GADGE BABA AMRAVATI UNIVERSITY, AMRAVATI
INDEX
[Link]
.
Chapt
er
Chapt
er
2
Title
Pa
ge
No.
LIST OF TABLES
INTRODUCTION
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
105
External Environment
Sociological factor
Ethical Factor
Industry Environment
International marketing
AN OVERVIEW OF SALES PROMOTION MANAGEMENT
VARIOUS TOOLS & TECHNIQUES
612
2.1 Employees
2.2 Distribution, Inventory and Supply Chain Strategies@
Walmart
2.3 Pricing Strategy @Walmart
2.4 Cost Leadership Strategies@ Walmart
Chapt
er
PRODUCT RANGES & OFFERS BY WALMART
3.1 Offers of Walmart
1315
Chapt
er
CONCLUSION & SUGGESTIONS
1617
4.1 Conclusions
4.2 Suggestions
Chapter
BIBLIOGRAPHY
17
CHAPTER-I
INTRODUCTION
Founded in 1962 by Sam Walton, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is one of the pioneers of discount
retailing, along with Kmart and Target. Wal-Mart in US has been solely responsible for selling
35 per cent of all pet food, 24 per cent of all toothpaste, the largest volume of jeweleri, groceries,
DVDs, CDs, toys, guns, diapers, sporting goods, bedding and much, much more (Ramaswamy,
2004 cited in Hanson, 2008, p. 580-581). The companys success has resulted in many constantly
observing it for new wisdom on management and strategy. But the recent years proved to be
challenging for Wal-Mart as analysts are doubtful of the companys ability to maintain the pace
of growth that it has shown in the previous years. Wal-Mart has to face competition from big
players like Carrefour, Metro and Tesco as well as new entrants such as Dollar [Link]
that, Wal-Mart has taken advantage of its massive base of power to force suppliers to do more for
less. Employees are also dissatisfied with the companys lack of employee welfare.
Wal-Mart, in full Wal-Mart Stores, Inc American operator of discount stores, one of the worlds
biggest retailers. Its headquarters are in Bentonville, [Link] it grew, the company developed new
retail formats, including Sams Club discount warehouses (1983) and Wal-Mart Supercenters
(1988). Within a decade of opening the combination grocery and merchandise Supercenters, WalMart had become one of the largest grocers in the United States. An emphasis on customer
attention (e.g., direct mail advertising), cost controls (e.g., low-cost imports), and efficiencies in
its distribution networks (e.g., regional warehousing) helped Wal-Mart become the largest
retailer in the United States in 1990. It moved into international markets one year later with the
opening of a store in Mexico, and growth continued, either through new stores or the acquisition
of established retailers, in countries such as Canada, China, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
The company experienced a decline in sales immediately following Waltons death in 1992 but
rebounded with the introduction of the companys house brand Great Value in 1993. In the years
after Waltons death, the company was less fiscally frugal, quickly accumulating corporate debt
in order to finance such new strategies as a group of additional Wal-Mart Supercentres. The
financial risk paid off: by 1995 Wal-Marts sales had doubled, by 1999 the company had become
the worlds largest private employer, and by 2001 its total sales surpassed those of Exxon Mobil,
ranking Wal-Mart as the largest corporation in the world.
The companys extreme growth did not occur without controversy. Wal-Mart has been criticized
for contributing to urban sprawl by forcing out of business local merchandisers, many of whom
were unable to compete with the companys economy. Wal-Mart has also been criticized for
perpetuating low wages; its workers make significantly less than the average retail worker, in
large part because of the companys anti-union stance. Its merchandising practices are
nonetheless emulated by other retailers.
External Environment:
Wal-Mart is one of the major players in the retailer industry. It has its own store brands in
addition to selling the national brands in US. Being the main retailer in US, it has garnered
enough power to negotiate the prices with the suppliers. Recently, it has an image issue due to
the lawsuits it is facing, the loss of jobs indirectly linked to it as well as the declaration of
bankruptcy or the shutting down of many retailers and manufacturer.
Sociological Factors:
The giant retailer has been accused of paying its employees as low as US$8.23 which amounted
being below the federal poverty line for a family of three. The company has also been sued for
forcing its employees to work overtime for free. Another lawsuit against Wal-Mart is about the
discrimination of women in top management. While about 90 per cent of Wal-Mart associates are
women, only 15 per cent are in the top management positions. It is also suggested that Wal-Mart
may be hiring illegal immigrants in violation of the law.
Ethical Factors:
Wal-Mart is such a powerful company that its decisions will have a direct impact on all its
suppliers and might even result in them filing for bankruptcy or shutting down, causing
thousands to lose their jobs. In an ethical way, the retailer does not weigh the consequences or try
to reduce the impact as long as the decision is beneficial to itself.
Industry Environment:
Small scale retailers such as Dollar General which catered to the low-income customers are
proving to be among the companies that Wal-Mart needs to be wary of. While the target market
seems to be the fastest growing segments of the population in US, the suppliers are also
generally satisfied working with Dollar General, as compared to Wal-Mart and its suppliers.
Intensity of Rivalry (International Market)
Penetrating into the international market has been quite difficult for Wal-Mart because it is not as
powerful and reputable as it is in US, unlike the major international players such as Carrefour,
Metro and Tesco. There are more competitors that Wal-Mart has to face in the international
market.
Wal-Mart- Origin:
Wal-Mart was the product of Sam Walton, a businessman from Arkansas. In the late 1940s, in
USA, a retailer who was successful in obtaining a sufficient discount for his products from the
whole-seller, used to sell the products at full price to the customers and thus enjoyed a substantial
amount of profit. Sam Walton during that time was working as a retailer at a J.C. Penney store in
Des Moines, Iowa. Incidentally while working there, he was introduced to Butler Brothers, a big
retailer who had chains of variety stores known as Ben Franklin and Sam was offered a store in
Arkansas. There Sam excelled in operating the stores and soon huge amount of sales were
generated which far exceeded the expectations. But during the lease renewal of the store, there
were some problems and as a result an agreement could not be reached. This drove Sam in
opening a new Ben Franklin franchise in Bentonville, Arkansas and called it Waltons Five and
Dime. The prices of the goods were marked quite low than the competitors. Walton realized that
instead of pocketing the extra money that was generated through retailing, he could better earn
profit by volume and pass on the savings to his customers. Sam was a firm believer of the fact
that his customers should be provided with what they want. In his autobiography, Sam said ,"The
secret of successful retailing is to give your customers what they want. And really if you think
about it from the point of view of the customer, you want everything: a wide assortment of
quality merchandise; the lowest possible prices; guaranteed satisfaction; friendly, knowledgeable
service; convenient hours; and a pleasant shopping experience.
CHAPTER II
AN OVERVIEW OF SALES PROMOTION MANAGEMENT VARIOUS
TOOLS& TECHNIQUES
Walmart focuses on its strong distribution, inventory management, differentiated pricing, cost
leadership strategies coupled with a strong usage of IT and innovations in developing its
strategies which has led Walmart in growing to the top retailer of the world.
Competitors like Carrefour are using their longer experience in the international market to their
advantage. Carrefour has been accused of leaning on suppliers to choke Wal-Marts supply lines.
Another strategy Carrefour employs is to demonstrate a new variation of the Everyday Low
Price where its employees are found in Wal-Marts parking lots to distribute fliers, showing
price comparisons with the prices at Wal-Mart at an almost real-time basis.
Major retail players like Carrefour and Tesco believe that they have the upper-hand in the
international market as they are more experienced and understand the markets better. Besides
that, they already have established reputations among the suppliers and will be more credible as a
retailer as compared to Wal-Mart.
Internal Environment
Reputation with Customers
By providing low prices for customers especially those living in the rural areas, many are
grateful that they can save up. In addition, Wal-Mart has become so powerful that it is able to sell
well-known brands at lower prices and thus proving the superior value it brings to its customers.
Wal-Mart is equipped with first-hand information about consumer preference data by having
suppliers to attach remote frequency devices (RFID) technology in all their packaging to track
individual items sold in the store. To improve efficiency of all business transactions with the
suppliers, Wal-Marts suppliers also have to an electronic data interchange (EDI) called Retail
Link that will track all business transactions with the giant retailer.
In the recent years, most of the sales of more than 30,000 suppliers are done through Wal-Mart
and this puts the retailer in a very favourable position for negotiation of the prices of the
products. With great foresight about the retail industry, the company is always ahead of the rest
especially in terms of efficiency and delivering its promise to its customers. Stakeholders of WalMart supplier.
The suppliers have become over- reliant on Wal-Mart and need the retailer more than the retailer
needs them. Thus when Wal-Mart is determining the prices and thus drawing out significant
price concessions from its suppliers, they are willing to comply and absorb any additional prices
to make the giant retailer appease.
Besides that, the suppliers also have to meet the terms set by Wal-Mart, such as the automated
technology demands to have the Retail Link for their business dealings with Wal-Mart and the
RFID technology in all their packaging. Suppliers are also expected to show up just when they
are needed in the case of deliveries as they will be due for payment for any delivery that they
miss or delay.
Employees:
Employees have sued Wal-Mart for numerous reasons, showing their dissatisfactions with the
company. Wal-Mart has been accused of making the employees work overtime without any
allowance, paying low wages and involved in unfair labour practice against women in separate
occasions.
Though Wal-Mart is a powerful retailer in US and around the world, it does not maintain a
positive image with its suppliers and the public. It may be looked upon in cases where people
analyse its success but people may remember the negative aspects of the company better.
Create a positive image of Wal-Mart To avoid being blamed for all the jobs lost when a supplier
could not live up to Wal-Marts expectations, the retailer should try to such situations whenever it
can. For example, it could compromise with a supplier regarding the prices of the stocks when
the prices increase. Other than that, it can donate to charitable organisations as a way of showing
that the retailer also cares and gives back to the society. Wal-Mart could also create a fund to aid
jobless people until they get another job.
Distribution, Inventory and Supply Chain Strategies@ Walmart
Walmarts urge in becoming the number 1 retailer in the world was only possible through its
effective pricing strategies and the use of technology, branding, imports and broad supplier and
labor relations. Many argue that Walmart has this unique ability to cut down their complex
business strategies by focusing more and more on a centralized communication channels rather
than focusing more on the design intricacies.
According to Friedman (2005), Walmarts greatest strength is its inventory control which is
achieved through its effective distribution centers which he labels as Walmart symphony with
no finale; it just plays over and over .
Walmart has strategic locations where in it efficiently brings the products and uses a technique
known as cross-docking. The Walmart stores are located in vicinity of its distribution center and
Walmart closely associates with the suppliers to simplify the deliveries. Grant noticed the crossdocking process and how the company eliminates third party product handling and receives
goods directly from the manufacturers. As a result, the store inventory overflows are eliminated.
Inbound and outbound trucks are immediately unloaded and reloaded to minimize warehouse
inventory time. Walmart removed the entire concept of wholesalers/distributors and they became
the pioneers in discount format leader. According to Petrovic&Hamilton , Walmart maintains a
high-class relationship with its suppliers and has been called as market-making phenomenon as
it literally shapes, contracts and conducts a set of standards, which the manufacturers must
follow in order to supply goods to Walmart. So the manufacturers cannot compromise with the
quality of goods they are supplying to Walmart.
Pricing Strategy @Walmart
Walmart has always been known for its low prices. Even its slogan says everyday low prices.
This has helped in all the major decisions at Walmart including the use of technology, marketing,
and distribution. According to Ortega (1998), Walmarts simple mission was offer the lowest
price. Cut costs to the bone, and keep cutting so you can offer the lowest price. Ever since
inception of Walmart, the mantra has been to price the products at the minimum so that more and
more consumers can buy from Walmart and as a result, the concentration can be made into
volume sales rather than margin. Initially when Walmart was started, focus was made to target
small USA towns, which have an average population of about 5000. These towns were neglected
by the competitors at that time and so to grab their potential, Sam Walton had introduced the
concept of every day low price (EDLP). This EDLP had promised customers of a wide variety
of products ranging from branded and unbranded products at a low price. Even the advertising
communication of Walmart said Because you work hard for every dollar, you deserve the lowest
price we can offer every time you make a purchase. You deserve our Every Day Low Price. The
products were usually 15-20 % cheaper than the other competitors and as a result Walmart
gained the loyalty of the rural masses and as a result of larger volumes, the Balance Sheet of
Walmart showed higher and higher profits. (ICMRIndia, 2010) According to Walton By cutting
your price, you can boost your sales to a point where you earn far more at the cheaper retail price
than you would have by selling the item at the higher price. In retailer language, you can lower
your markup but earn more because of the increased volume.(Walmart, 2010)
Some people however have a different opinion about the pricing of Walmart. According to
Cowgill of Zenith Management Consulting, Walmarts strategy is not low price. Rather
Walmart has been called as Master of Manipulating Perception.
Walmart creates a perception in consumers that the prices of its products are lower and they
become stuck in a self-reinforcing loop that keeps them shopping at Walmart. A very lowpriced, high-velocity item is placed at the opening price point spot in each store section. As a
result the customer perception is such created that since the staring item is less priced hence all
other items are low-priced. (Cowgill, 2005)
Cost Leadership Strategies @ Walmart
One of the most important strategies that an organization should take into account is that it has to
be a market leader and especially in the retail sector when there is a huge competition from the
different large players, you have to be a cost leader so as to drive the competition away. Walmart
specially has used this cost leadership strategy and integrated cost leadership with the Porters
five forces and has created some sort of a price barrier for the new entries. The new entries
would think twice that they have to compete with Walmart when they would like to enter the
retail market. Walmart has made cost leadership their philosophy.
Any firm who would like to be a cost leader should try to imitate and learn from Walmart. The
slogan of Walmart Always Low Prices. Always has given the company a unique selling point
as the consumers are always attracted to buy items from a place where they can get a good value
for money proposition. Walmart buys goods in bulk at lower costs per unit. Moreover the store
layouts and designs of the Walmart stores are very simple and not at all complicated like other
mega marts. From the start, Wal-Mart imposed a strict control on its overhead costs. The stores
were set up in large buildings, while ensuring that the rent paid was minimal. The company
imposed an upper limit for its rent payment at $1.00 per square foot during the late 1960s. Not
much emphasis was laid on the interiors of the stores. (ICMRIndia, 2010) Moreover the
employee number is also not that great. It has even created a culture of cost-cutting measure even
among the executive posts. When the managers need to travel from one location to another the
company pays for the coach rather than a flight ticket and they are even encouraged to put up in
an affordable hotel so as to minimize costs. According to data published by Harvard Business
School, Walmart maintains a 0.3% to 3.0% cost differential in all its value chain activities over
its direct competitors. The only exception is in the area of Information Technology where their
costs exceed their competitors by 0.2%. This is however acceptable as Walmarts superior IT
helps in the effective operations. (Bradley &Ghemawat, 2002)
The company has a very strict monitoring process and has established a Universal Code in an
attempt to keep a constant check in the product flows within one area to another. The company
can thus efficiently have a check on its inventories, sales, process orders, etc. Effective data
analysis from a huge Walmarts database is efficiently done and all these improvements have
helped Walmart in reducing wastage and hence minimize the cost of production. This is why it
is an exemplary cost leader. (Sedy, 1992)
IT and Innovations @Walmart
The stores for the worlds largest company and worlds largest private employer can be found
everywhere in USA. Infact the store locations are such that each one of them is about an hour
drive from each other. Walmart has often evicted many of the small retailers and carved out a
giant retail space for itself and as a result is often regarded as an evil. A key senator has often
called Walmart as a giant money grabbing evil corporation. It also comes under fire for
outsourcing a majority of its manufacturing particularly in China. Walmart has created
competitive advantage by a proper mixing and use of IT and innovations. Walmarts first major
use of IT came in 1975, when the company leased an IBM computer system for tracking
inventory and distribution centers. In 1975 it was a cutting edge and gave Walmart advantage
over other retailers. Another revolutionary use of IT was Walmarts implementation of Barcodes
for scanning products in 1983. With barcodes all that was needed was a quick scan and the
computer did the rest. This greatly sped up check out time and made tracking inventory and data
collection easier for both customer and employees alike and had since become an industry
standard for products. In 1987 as information became more essential for the company, Walmart
completed its own private satellite network. This network allowed for a direct two way
communication between the head quarter and individual stores so that the instant information on
inventory, sales could be viewed directly by the upper management. At that time it was the
largest private satellite network across the globe and allowed the company to relay information
around the globe. In 1992, Walmart built a 125000 sq ft data centre near its headquarter
Arkansas. It was like a giant bunker and surrounded by barbed fence. It could accommodate data
twice the size of the internet. So it could be seen that Walmart through its constant innovation
and technology carved its path to be at the top.
RFID@ Walmart
Radio-frequency
identification (RFID)
is
a technology that
uses
communication
via
electromagnetic waves to exchange data between a terminal and an electronic tag attached to an
object, for the purpose of identification and tracking. Some tags can be read from several meters
away and beyond the line of sight of the reader. Walmart has been one of the pioneers in using
RFID.
From 1st August, 2010 onwards, Walmart has started using RFID tags for the mens wear at the
initial level. According to Walmart, the tags are crucial and they could improve the logistics and
help in proper maintaining of the inventory levels. The tags can be implanted in the garments and
can be read by scanners. According to Walmart officials, the implementation of the tags has
helped in speeding up of the operations and accuracy level with a check on inventory levels.
This ability to wave the wand and have a sense of all the products that are on the floor or in the
back room in seconds is something that we feel can really transform our business, crows Raul
Vasquez, Wal-Marts representative for its stores in the western states.
However, according to many critics, this RFID interferes with the privacy of the buyers as the
RFID constantly emits a signal and could be used by anybody. So even after the goods are
brought home, one can easily track the person if he/she wants and thereby affects his/her privacy
directly. However by the use of this technology, Walmart takes a step ahead than many of its
competitors and could have a timely check at its inventories. Thus it could be said that Walmart
is a pioneer in the usage of this technology as many of the other big retailers like JC Penny, etc
are also on the verge of implementing this technology. The Wall Street Journal reports that
several other U.S. retailers, including J.C. Penney and Bloomingdales, have begun
experimenting with smart tags on clothing to better ensure shelves remain stocked with sizes and
colors that customers want
CHAPTER -III
PRODUCT RANGES & OFFERS BY WALMART
Wal-Mart is currently enjoying a record year in which they have vaulted to the top of the Fortune
500 listing. However, they have not implemented their strategy in the best possible way;
especially in regards to public relations. Many in retail see the company as a bully and a tyrant.
They present the impression of a corporate bully that destroys communities and clamps down on
workers rights ([Link]). Alternative strategies available to Wal-Mart are to
adopt a friendlier corporate attitude. While they display a cheery attitude in public, off camera
they are quite aggressive. Coming to an understanding with organized labor is needed. They
must ease their way into foreign markets, instead of barging in and buying up companies. If
these strategies are used, Wal-Mart will not only be the largest retail chain in the world, it could
become one of the most popular stores in history.
The first area that needs to be addressed is Wal-Mart's aggressive corporate strategy. Surely,
there is nothing wrong with being aggressive in the marketplace. However, Wal-Mart has gone
about it in such a way as to seem ruthless. Countless grassroots, anti-Wal-Mart groups have
sprung up to keep the retail giant out of their communities. The public perception is that WalMart can destroy a community. Wal-Mart does not help this perception when it comes in and
shuts down all the local businesses and then proceeds to move in on other areas. Wal-Mart
boasts that it provides jobs for the people in a particular area it moves into. The underlying
reality is that they have to work at Wal-Mart because the local stores were shoved out. To fight
this negative image, Wal-Mart must stop trying to circumvent laws when building new facilities.
It must demonstrate precisely how it can be a good neighbor.
Wal-Mart loves to throw money at charities and say it does good work. They need to be more
active in this work, and not simply provide cash to organizations such as the United Way. Also,
the company boasts rising over $150 million in 2001. That money however was raised from the
contribution of employees, rather than from company [Link]-Mart needs to send its store
managers and executives into local communities to give their time in the community in a
meaningful way. It would also be a plus if salaried store managers were permitted to work on
community projects on company time, rather than being encouraged to do things on their own
time.
This cheapness reflects badly on the company. The public loves to see people in positions of
power helping out the little guy, President Jimmy Carter being the perfect example. He is
wealthy, and he is a former President of the United States; yet he goes out with everyday people
to help the poor build homes through the "Habitat for Humanity" project. People love this, and if
Wal-Mart could do something along those lines every so often and get local media to cover it;
they would deflect a lot of the negative press that says they hurt communities. The story would
change from "Wal-Mart Behemoth Rolls Into Town" into "Local Wal-Mart Workers Donate
Money, Time to Help the Local Poor". Wal-Mart could continue to expand at its current pace,
but could shift the focus away from its local dominance to all the good it is doing. This would
raise its profile immensely.
Secondly, Wal-Mart needs to relax its anti-unionization policy and allow its employees to freely
choose to organize themselves in a union. They are getting walloped on every front for their
commonly known unfair labor practices. Many in the public are sympathetic to the rights of
workers to unionize and have a collective voice in the workplace. Wal-Mart, like any
corporation, is driven by profit. Many American companies, which are unionized do well in
business. A current issue involves workers in Wal-Mart's automotive division, who want to
unionize. Wal-Mart is using serious political capitol to keep that from happening. This is a giant
mistake that will hurt the corporation in the long run. They are being sued by the National Labor
Relations Board and several unions. This fight will end up costing Wal-Mart more than allowing
its workers to unionize in that store. In addition to litigation costs, Wal-Mart looses creditability
and reputation (Fortune, March 18, 2002). Wal-Mart's fight to keep out unions forces the
company to do battle with its employees, fight legal battles with local regulators, and to look bad
in the media. Expansion into foreign markets, especially left leaning European nations will mean
that Wal-Mart will increasingly confront the unionization issue. Their reaction to that
confrontation could land the company into trouble not only with European regulators, but with
angry European customers.
Finally, Wal-Mart must better utilize its political capitol and learn from the experience of local
retailers when attempting to expand overseas.
The stores must be willing to bend their
uniformity and consider the reaction of the local culture. They have begun to adopt this posture
in their dealings with Japan and the deal with Seiyu, a Japanese retailer. However, some of their
other ventures thus far have not run as smoothly. In Canada, for example, stores in the province
of Quebec had some initial cultural difficulties. The over patriotic style of Wal-Mart does not
work well with the culture in Quebec, which shuns overt patriotism. Flying a Canadian flag in a
Quebec store can become an embarrassing political issue due to heightened francophone Quebec
nationalism in some regions of Quebec. Yet to fly only a Quebec flag and not the national flag of
Canada is a symbol of supporting separatism. The company learned quickly to tone down its use
of patriotism in Quebec. Another mistake the company made in Quebec was to publish it's
circular in the English language, to a mostly French speaking population. This illustrates the
larger point, that Wal-Mart has much to learn about the various cultures it is dropping its
superstores into (Canadian Business, 1996)
Germany, England, and stores in South America have all not performed up to speed, and in fact
Wal-Mart has had to close stores in all these locations because it was not ready to meet the needs
of its new clientele. The world is not yet-ready for full-on, US Wal-Mart style retail, especially
in the current anti-American climate in Europe. Wal-Mart must consult with business leaders in
the various countries they are growing into, and find out the best way to attract business and not
upset the local populace. Wal-Mart experienced problems in Germany, where they attempted to
drop all their prices below their competitors. This is against the law in Germany, where pricefixing by the government is commonplace. Wal-Mart eventually circumvented the law, but this
did not make people in Germany happy. Wal-Mart needs to work better with governments, not
against them, to adjust to the various markets and achieve success overseas. Wal-Mart might
have to spend more money and more time to implement the aforementioned strategy ideas. Bad
press is simply not good for the bottom line in the long term, and it can't get much worse than it
has regarding labor relations. A friendly corporate image is more than a smiley face that slashes
prices. Putting ones own people out helping the public is what makes a company visible.
Working with governments and being sensitive to local cultures instead of working against them
will benefit the company in the long term. By implementing these suggestions, Wal-Mart would
not only expand into foreign markets at a quicker pace, they would also be better positioned to
defend themselves against their critics.
CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSION & SUGGESTIONS
The above small attempt to analyze the worlds largest private employer brought into light a few
concrete conclusions about the company. The company showed a steady performance even
during the financial crisis and it turned out to be the top out of the competitors.
The working culture, the customer-oriented focus and its steady aim in achieving its vision has
made it different from rest of the competitors. Its pricing and cost leadership strategies coupled
with the effective use of technology has helped transform Walmart to a huge corporation.
Walmart invests in providing a better shopping experience to customers. The new product lines
such as energy saving products, advancements in healthcare, pharmacy and efficient
implementation of IT systems to control the operations all over its stores has paved the way to
experience a sustainable growth in the future.
The companys extreme growth did not occur without controversy. Wal-Mart has been criticized
for contributing to urban sprawl by forcing out of business local merchandisers, many of whom
were unable to compete with the companys economy [Link]-Mart has also been criticized
for perpetuating low wages; its workers make significantly less than the average retail worker, in
large part because of the companys anti-union stance. Its merchandising practices are
nonetheless emulated by other retailers.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bernstein, Aaron "Labor Finally Puts A Target on Wal-Mart" Business Week, Dec. 6,
2000.
Canadian Business and Current Affairs "A giant, yes. Gentle, no: Wal-Mart stumbles into
a cultural chasm"
[Link]
[Link]
Wal-Mart Company Profile" [Link]