Posted on 02/16/2010 10:01:48 AM PST by Star Traveler
Published by diamondpoet
December 4, 2009
What is Walmart really up to.
Walmart is one of the biggest supermarket chains in the world. As of August 31, 2008, Walmart has as many as 100 food categories:
United States 4,227 total units.
International 3,210 total units
This is a time where families needs to make every penny count, Walmart expansion of it’s Great Value brand is replacing many of the name brands, we have used for so many years.
The new improved Great Value products — which has been appearing on shelves and various sections of the store, is slowly being integrated into Walmart stores across the country, within the past few months – will provide families with affordable and possible high quality groceries. This is some sales jargon that Walmart has come up with, but what is really going on?
Walmart is the company, that is famous for their roll-back slogan, and now it would seem that they are also trying to monopolize the food industry. I am all for savings, but I prefer quality products and good taste. I grew up with many of the brand names and it is what I am accustomed to.
There are a few thing that I could settle for, that is not name brand, but when I was shopping during the Thanksgiving holiday, I was looking for McCormick’s vanilla, this is the only brand that I use to make my pies. I discovered that Walmart had completely removed McCormick’s brand and replaced it with their own brand Great Value. I rely on McCormick’s products to prepare many of my meals.
I tried using substitutes, but there is no comparison to McCormick’s Seasonings. I have never shopped anywhere other than Walmart, because I was comfortable and they basically provided most of my needs.
It would now see that I am being forces to shop somewhere else. Walmart no longer stock all the brand names that I desire. Since Walmart is trying to completely eliminate the middle-man, what type of effect will this have on many of the distributors and will this also have a spiraling effect on the economy as well?
Since so many distributors rely on Walmart’s business, will they not suffer and be forced to downsize? I can’t help but wonder is this really going to benefits the consumers or hurt us even more?
Interesting post...I used to love shopping for my groceries there, it was cheaper by a mile. However they remodeled the store about 6 months ago, and after that the selection changed substantially. Off the top of my head I can think of about a dozen products I like and used to purchase there that they quit carrying. Some of them weren’t even replaced by Walmart brands, they just didnt have enought room on the shelves to squeeze them in. I just quit going, it wasn’t worth having to go there and then to Publix to get the other stuff I like. Oh well its not anything I’ve even complained to my wife about..Walmart is smart, if their crap don’t sell, they will replace it.
Actually some of the cans at Walmart do state something to the effect that the product was developed in China. I do think you have a point about other businesses though. I’m sure theirs are labeled too, if Walmarts are.
Good point.
LOL! Very true. Unlike Crocodile Dundee's famous outback barbie, it tastes like $#!+, and it won't necessarily keep you alive.
>>>>>And there you have it -- the stupidest marketing decision that I've heard Walmart making ... LOL...
Obviously, you don't know what you're talking about.
As an old purchasing agent and manager, I've bought supplies, services and capital equipment for several industries and businesses since the 1960`s, including retail sales. As I said, the quality of Walmart in-house generic brand products is mostly as good as you'll find in national brand names. Although it wasn't always like that. Sometimes items do not measure up.
In the 12 years or so I've been buying groceries at Walmart, I'd say the generic brands have worked for me in almost all cases. After several generic items didn't measure up to my standards, I went back to the old standbys.
Walmart's marketing of these generic products is straightforward and limited to a trial and error basis. Put it on the shelf and if it sells, you've got a winner. If the item doesn't sell, you remove it and try again at some future date. May be after finding a new supplier or simply after revamping the product.
The reason Walmart, along with Safeway and King Soopers in my area of the country, are using more generic products is obvious. They're selling and saving people money!
For the most part, its good stuff. If you have a problem shopping at Walmart, go somewhere else. Just stop whining already!
It’s a real ugly label, too. The coffee I bought, it looked like a can of house paint. Not even paint. Primer.
LOL... it is an ugly label... someone is real messed up in the marketing department at Walmart, I think...
Oh... I gotta say one more thing about the “off-brand” label, when I saw how ugly it was, I figured that the only reason they had that kind of label is so that Walmart could save on printing costs and not have to pay for hardly any ink for their labels... LOL...
That’s what I thought too. Store brands and generics look like they’re run off on a cheap copier. They have to be cheaper to make, with no photos and hardly any color.
By the way, don’t drink their half and half. It’s watery.
In the 12 years or so I've been buying groceries at Walmart, I'd say the generic brands have worked for me in almost all cases. After several generic items didn't measure up to my standards, I went back to the old standbys.
Walmart's marketing of these generic products is straightforward and limited to a trial and error basis. Put it on the shelf and if it sells, you've got a winner. If the item doesn't sell, you remove it and try again at some future date. May be after finding a new supplier or simply after revamping the product.
Well... there is a problem with what you said... and actually, I'm not sure you really understand what the problem is, that is being talked about here... :-)
First the problem with what you said -- it's that you (and anyone else, for that matter) can't assume that because you as an individual like generic products that this is going to work for everyone else. You should know that this is not going to be the case. Generics simply do not work for everyone. Not at all and not even by a "long shot" do they work for the majority of the people. They will work for a certain number.
Now... for the part you don't seem to understand. And I'll illustrate it by using one statement that you made (that I quoted up above)... you said...
After several generic items didn't measure up to my standards, I went back to the old standbys.
And -- there -- is precisely the problem with Walmart and the "stupidity" of their marketing... :-)
You said tht you "went back to the old standbys"...
WELL..., for a certain group of products... Walmart "got rid of the old standbys"... so you couldn't go back to them... LOL...
And the reason why it was a completely stupid and idiotic idea of Walmart to do that -- simply because if you could not go to your "old standby" at Walmart -- then you had to go to Walmart's competitor, to get that "old standby"...
And thus the problem -- Walmart would be "pushing you out" to a competitor, to get that "old standby" that you decided to go back to -- since you could no longer get it at Walmart... LOL...
I hope you "get it" by now... :-)
I don’t get my dairy products from Walmart... :-) There is a place around here in Tulsa that is called Braums. They are a hamburger/ice cream fast-food place, but they also sell some fresh fruit, a small selection of grocery products, milk, eggs, gallon ice cream, some meat products and stuff like that. I get those products at Braums and they’re the best... prices are good, too.
***”Great Value” orange juice is my favorite. Walmart has had GVroducts for years***
They better not mess with my Old Roy or Equate brands!;-D
***main difference between the store brands and the main line***
Our local cannery does the same. When one order is complete, the labels are changed and another “brand” runs off the line. Same product. Possibly even Great Value!
This is true....and they usually win because they are so big. Can you imagine the impact on a company if they lose Walmart's account?
I think they move everything around every night at My WM so you find 10 things you don't need while trying to find the thing you were looking for.
I've heard they set the thermostats in their stores from Bentonville.
Putting their “great value” brand on the shelf next to name-brand products doesn’t bother me. I tend to buy name brand for most items, though not all. Now, if they start pushing the products that I like off the shelves, I will buy them elsewhere.
I have the choice of 3 nearby grocery chains plus WalMart and I shop at all of them. The pricing is interesting - WalMart’s regular price is usually lower than the other stores on common namebrand products like Life cereal and Triscuit crackers. But the grocers often have sales and when the non-perishable products that I like are on sale at other stores, I stock up on them.
There’s nothing wrong with having 10 boxes of crackers, a dozen cans of tuna, or 30 cans of soup on the shelf (just be sure to rotate your stock).
There is no problem from my point of view. From your perspective, the vast majority of people are more impressed with packaging and labeling, then they are in saving money. Fine. IMO, that is a psychological problem that only you and others can solve for yourselves. I can't help you. My remarks were directed from personal experience, along with years of marketing and professional work in the business world.
It doesn't matter if the item is generic or brand name. All items can be sub par to one degree or another. Consideration must always be given to available space and cost markup. If a brand name item is taken off the self in favor of a generic item, then it was done as a marketing decision. Why? The generic item was probably selling better then the brand name item. In most cases, its as simple as that. In some cases, old standbys, could be generic items.
The fact is, Walmart has made the other supermarket chains more price conscious and more competitive because of the strategy and tactics Walmart has employed in recent years. So far, Walmart is still winning the price wars and for good reasons. If Walmart generic items aren't for you, then shop at a more expensive store and pay more for the same quality. Not liking generic products as a rule of life, is a state of mind. A stupid state of mind.
Which ones?
The fact is, Walmart has made the other supermarket chains more price conscious and more competitive because of the strategy and tactics Walmart has employed in recent years. So far, Walmart is still winning the price wars and for good reasons. If Walmart generic items aren't for you, then shop at a more expensive store and pay more for the same quality. Not liking generic products as a rule of life, is a state of mind. A stupid state of mind.
You still dont get it... and I have no idea why you can't...
The problem here is that you've got customers coming into Walmart that buy name-brand products, regardless of the fact of what it is that you or anyone else thinks about "off-brand" labeled products. That's just a fact of life and nothing you say or grouse about, concerning how someone should not care about name-brand products -- can change that fact. That's just the way it is.
And if Walmart wants their off-brand product on the shelves, that's fine too. You seem to want to make some kind of argument about that. It doesn't matter whether Walmart wants to put their off-brand product on their shelves or not. That's fine and that's not the issue.
And again, it's not the issue as to whether some should care or not care about name-brand products or off-brand products. That's not the issue.
Here's where the issue is. Walmart has taken off their shelves certain name-brand products that people have bought there and have bought regularly there at Walmart. And what they've done with these certain selected name-brand products -- is -- they've replaced them with their off-brand product and have no comparable name-brand one there.
Now... you've got these customers who have now discovered that they cannot get their name-brand product any longer at Walmart. So..., they are forced to go to Walmart's competitor to get that same product that they've been getting at Walmart all along.
Thus, Walmart's marketing decision to have only their off-brand Walmart product and no name-brand product (for that selected item) has caused those particular Walmart customers to be forced to go to a Walmart competitor.
Furthermore, according to an article in an advertising magazine (I posted it earlier here on this thread) -- Walmart is going to do more of the removing of any name-brand product and only have their off-brand product as the only item.
That means that more and more people are going to be "pushed out" of Walmart, by its own marketing decision to not have the products that these people have been buying all along at Walmart.
And that -- you see -- is the extremely stupid marketing decision, which Walmart ends up "driving customers away" and into their competitors stores, because Walmart decided to no longer keep the name-brand item that these customers have been buying all along.
That's the extremely stupid and idiotic marketing decision that Walmart has made, which is going to cause more and more of their previous customers to move over to the competitors for Walmart. A very bad decision on their part.
NOW..., what other major retailers do with their off-brand products -- is -- they keep both the name-brand and the off-brand on the shelves and let the customer decide which one they want. That way (in these other major retailer place) the customer is not forced "out of the store" (and to a competitor's store) to get that name brand product.
I don't know where Walmart is getting some of their marketing people these days, but they better fire them and get a better batch of marketing people in there before Walmart loses more customers... :-)
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