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... :-)
This is an argument directly related to name brand items versus generic items sold at Walmart. That means its all about supply and demand. The author is pissed off about not having McCormick's vanilla extract. Well, too bad. Life ain't perfect. Go shop at a store that sells it.
Walmart’s marketing decisions are based on their entire customer base and while that strategy may piss off some folks, most customers are satisfied. Different Walmart stores in different parts of the nation, sell many different items. As I keep telling you. If you don't like what items are being sold or not sold at Walmart --- whether they're brand names or generic --- then go shop somewhere else!
And stop making a mountain out of a mole hill!