The Evil Empire strikes back!
Anybody notice the full page Walmart newspaper ads in the Star and Lawrence Journal World that have been running?
The ones in which Walmart of Kansas City attacks hometown grocer Price Chopper.
Wow, I totally don’t remember Walmart going all out and doing a hit job on a local biz before, but that’s exactly what is happening here.
“See For Yourself Kansas City,” the headline boldy pronounces. “Same items , 17 percent less.”
What follows are two cash register receipts with the same items purchased at each store showing a $26.53 saving at Walmart, down from a price of $150.71 at Price Chopper.
Now I haven’t seen anything written about this in the Star, even though I think it’s fairly newsworthy. Guess they don’t want to bite the hand that’s feeding them. Of course, Price Chopper does quite a bit of feeding ad dollars to the Star as well.
So we’ll see.
I’ll do some poking around tomorrow.
typical of what’s going on in the entire nation and world. The big corps are
wanting it all. They want to destroy their competition. They want to
destroy the local markets. Price choppers are all locally owned…the consentinos/
balls etc are all local owners. They are tremendous business people who grew
from smaller operations. My family knows them all. Great great people who
do an important job with the local community.
Wal mart will crunch prices to destroy price chopper. I heard these ads
months ago.
eventually wall mart hopes to take all their competitors out in the grocery
business and have it all for themselves. Thats the predatory vulturistic
system we’re seeing today.
This election is going to take that into account. A man who’s on ly job was
to make money…looting….bankrupting….taking over a business and increasing
the company’s debt til it had to go under…then sending the workers home
without a job or health insurnace. Thats willard. Or the guy trying to
help retain the middle class.
and once wal mart kills off the independent grocer…kills off the local
stores…they screw thousands of hard working decent income employees
then dumps them into the uninsured pool where each one of us has to
pay for their care.
It’s very sad. Hopefully the nation will wake up before it’s too late.
We’ve seen this same tragedy occur in other industries and it’s going
to continue to affect the country until people finally wake up.
Wal marts goal is to destroy anyone who compete with them. this
ad campaign i’m sure has been used in other markets. It’s very unusual
to try to directy mention and destroy a locally owned company.
But…its the way of the world right now and hopefully the good
people who own those stores will be able to compete.
What a sad day…the big corporate vultures aren’t happy yet…they
want it all.
dont buy from wal mart!
I am cognitively dissonant. I agree with some of what Harley says.
(This is kinda weird, yesterday I agreed with Harley favorably reviewed Pat Budhanan’s new book.)
The Cosentinos are a local family, and indeed, I shop there. I am probably the exception, being an obdurate old grouch, but I will absolutely pay more to shop at Cosentinos, even though I could buy it cheaper at Wallmart, and I am in no way well heeled.
Local captains of industry are a far cry from national captains of industry for the most part. While I think Lloyd Blankfein et al should be shot, I believe local business owners across the United States of America are the one thing keeping the economy afloat in the face of the increased taxes, regualtion and stupidity that the Federal Government tosses their way every day.
Just my opinion.
🙂
thanks chuckie…but youmention increased taxes…where?
federal taxes under obama are at the lowest they’ve been since 1950!
sales taxes…oh yeah…raised by republicans last year by 16% in kansas..
thanks repubs…
actually …people are paying much lower federal taxes right now tdoay
with obamas tax credits than they have for 50 years! how about payroll
tax break obama passed…$1000 a year tax break!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
so its the state and local governments doing the taxation…
but you’re right chuck….the large banks/corporations are running their
profits overseas…the large corps are gaming the tax system so they can
pay far far less than small businesses can. so the repubs supports those big
businesses and they support taxing the lower and middle incomes while
giveing huge tax breaks to those making over $1 million…
don’t you see chuckie…its a fixed system. The businsseses with big money
bought off congress (congress makes the bills)…they rigged the syustem
against small businesses…allowing the big corps to pay little
if anything leaving small businesses to pay
the tax bills.
did you see chukie 37 trillion dollars in untaxed corporate profits overseas?
can’t you see what’s going on. this is just another example of the
too big and too big to fail screwing the nation.
Drop your rose colored glasses…put down your gun….see whats
happening right in front of your eyes.
regualation: where? too much regulation? are you serious. You can open
a company now with $100….
you and your buddies need to see the light real soon. It will sweep you
away….
you’ve been brainwashed…sorry….you’ve been spoon fed bullshit about
taxes/regulation (i know you don’t own a company…so tell me in your
business what the tough regulations are?)…..under obama federal regulations
have decreased than under the same time period under bush.
this is the last chance for the big corps to take over whats left of amercia.
They see the demographics and the changing face of the nation…they know
this is it….either take what little is left for themselves or be “forced” to
pay their share.
taxes…how about the taxes people in kansas have to pay for AMC/
sprint/and the rest of the those big corporate companies to just
move to kansas!!!!! who is going to pay that money for those tax breaks.
someone has to make up fro those…
you’re chasing the wrong criminals!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry, I don’t go to the grocery store simply to save money. hell, I could do that at Aldi. Wal-Mart can’t TOUCH their prices! When it comes to the food I prepare for my friends and family, I want quality and selection. I will also pay EXTRA to make those purchases in an environment that is clean, aesthetically pleasing and managed by professional people that know what the grocery business is all about. I know all the managers and the director of my local Price Chopper. We greet each other by name. These are not friends of mine. They are just people that took the time to introduce themselves to me so that they could provide the ultimate customer service upon request. Wal-Mart will NEVER grasp this concept. Their grocery departments are like shopping in a freaking dirty warehouse and the employees MUST be on a work-release program. I know that “price” is the bottom line for alot of people. I’m just not one of them. An extra $8 or $10 a week is a small price to pay for dodging 400 lb tatted-up meth-heads on Rascals while trying to grab a gallon of milk.
Another thing besides everthing you mentioned is how long it takes to get checked out at WalMart. I don’t see it being much of a bargain when you stand in line for 30 to 45 minutes to get checked out and your frozen goods are not frozen anymore by the time you get home with them. Liquid ice cream just isn’t as good as frozen, even if it is cheaper. That leaves only non-perishables to buy there but as you said, Aldi beats them on that. Since convenience, time, selection, service and quality are important to me, I will go to Price Chopper, Sunfresh, or Hy-Vee.
Good points Jim and I totally forgot how much I like seeing the same people working at Price Chopper and shooting the breeze with them.
I ALWAYS try to buy local if I can.
“An extra $8 or $10 a week is a small price to pay for dodging 400 lb tatted-up meth-heads on Rascals while trying to grab a gallon of milk.”
Couldn’t have said it better myself. Dirty stores, dirty people, dirty employees. No thanks.
Walmart is under pressure to increase the bottom line. The days of doing that by opening more stores in the US are gone. In business you have three paths to choose regarding your core competency, best product, best price, best service. Walmart has always been about price even though, as Jim says, Aldi usually beats them on price as do Dollar General and Family Dollar on most sundry items. When you get into the micro analysis of what WalMart is doing it’s not just the grocery chains they have declared war on. They have made huge inroads in pet products, hurting Petco and Pet Smart, electronics, going after Best Buy and the BIGGIE….prescription drugs. Walmart is good for America. They have forced suppliers and competitors to get leaner, meaner and greener. They have also forced competitors to focus on better quality and better service as a way of differentiating themselves. I buy lots of stuff at Walmart but never groceries. HyVee, Price Chopper, Sunfresh, McGonigles and Whole Foods get my food spend.
It’s all about personal
choice
…
Shop where you want, why you want …
… is this a great country or what.
wrong smartman….when competitors close up the labor goes to wal mart.
wal mart is nothing but a huge manipulator of labor….they don’t
offer benefits and so their workers become the patients in emergency
rooms.
they are not good for america. they are category killers…and when the
low prices settle (and they are not the lowest priced in all areas) the
taxpayers of america are stuck with taking care of their employees.
theyre cut throat…having moved all their product purchases overseas…
they scrape their employees and in the end …as always
we the tax payers end up with the cost of insurance for their employees.
their vultures…but there are so many vultures now in america
that it makes no difference….
this isn’t like selling used hot tubs!
It’s commerce Harley. It is what it is. We live in a global marketplace defined by the dynamics we as consumers create. WE created Walmart. Sam Walton just filled a need that existed. That’s the essence of capitalism. Filling a need, whether it be for cheap goods or iPads. Using your logic you should loathe amazon.com. In your mind they are surely a much bigger threat to American retail jobs than Walmart. Hell, with improvements in robotics and automation Amazon will one day be able to have 80% of order fulfillment done at their warehouses by machines. That will drive prices even lower! Jeff Bezos might as well be Jeff Beelzebub!
Walmart has forced American manufacturers to be more competitive which has resulted in US companies being able to compete against foreign competition domestically and abroad.
The entry level jobs at Walmart are shit. Just like they are at most retailers. I know several people that work at metro area Walmarts that started on the bottom rung and worked their way up and are now making between $60K and $80K. It can be done. Your buddy half black Barry has got the health thing covered….right?
Put on your big boy diaper. If you can’t add value to a product, service or process or if what you do can be done by a robot, machine or Hindu boy you’re FUCKED. That’s the world we live in. WE created it, no one else. WE created the actions. WE suffer the consequences.
Maybe I’m crazy but I don’t see WalMart winning this one. Part of how they keep their prices low as you said is lower labor costs. Excessive checkout times just don’t work for groceries. Remember what a failure Hypermart was in south K.C.? They had 33 checkouts they could have opened and would only open 2 or 3 no matter how busy it was. People would abandon whole carts of groceries where they stood and walk out frustrated. It took them hours to even dispose of the carts with the flies swarming around them. After awhile, business adjusted itself down to their ability to service the customers and it wasn’t enough to keep it profitable and they closed. Service does matter. People will bite on the WalMart ads but if WalMart’s service is poor, they will go back to where they were shopping before.
Pretty sure I saw Harley in one of those People of Wal-Mart e-mails. He was wearing a pair of Daisy Dukes with BOTTY-LICIOUS on the ass. As a side note to those who choose to wear those……if your ass is big enough to get the word “BOOTY-LICIOUS” on it, it’s probably not. Consider this a PSA.
I DESPISE “Wal Marts” and refuse to shop there. I consider them the Satan of retailers.
I’ve watched them put two companies I was close to out of business. Yes, in the end, the demise was participated in by my friends who changed their whole paradigm to meet Wal Mart needs and desires. They got caught up in the success and lost track of the danger of having ONE client!!
One was a telecom firm in Bentonville. Highly successful firm, one of my largest clients. WM came to them and asked if they would do phone systems for 5 stores. They did, all went well. They then came back and added 20 stores, then 30 stores. Before long, my friend had 10 roving crews doing stores. The end came when WM came in to meet with him and said “You’re doing so much for us, you need to drop your customer base and just do our stores.” That was a red flag, I told him so, but he was enamored with the incredible spike in his business that would never end!! He was getting RICH off of Wal Mart. I advised against it, he gave in to the cash flow!
Shortly after that, meeting 2; “We have a new business plan for you, you need to start doing these stores for 10% over your loaded cost” to which my friend replied, “I can’t DO that, it would bankrupt me!” Wal Mart said, “Gee, we’re really sorry. Looks like we’re done.” The Wal Mart Corp people called the crews and said, “You now work for this OTHER company and you’re going to like it a lot!” My friend got cut off……. with $3.5 million of my inventory in his warehouse. Guess who bought it at the bankruptcy sale? Uh huh – Wal Mart. For pennies.
They did the exact same thing, exact same way to a friend down there who was in the fly tying business.
If you don’t care about their business practices, go look at the mutants who shop there! thepeopleofwalmart.com is NOT photoshop friends, its REAL!! Avoid them like the plague!! It simply doesn’t matter if you save .10 on a roll of toilet paper when we look at what these people have done to small town America’s mom and pop stores.
Wow.
That is a brutal story.
Can your guy seek redress under a “Fair Trade Law” or something of that nature?
Can intent be proven, and therefore an amount attatched to the malfeasance?
Sheesh…
Yep, sounds like typical Walmart cutthroat capitalism. And if you think that is good for Uhmerica you have another thing coming to you.
They are well known to enter a new market and sell merchandise really cheap until their competitors are gone and then raise their prices back up. That is the same way that monopolies were formed in the late 19th century and early 20th century before anti-trust laws. While I am 100% for capitalism, it breaks down as a system when there is co competition.
… sad, but who’s fault? … your friend or Wal-Mart?
” …he was getting RICH off of Wal Mart!” … hmmm, who is greedy here … your friend or Wal-Mart? You WARNED him …. sorry, no sympathy from me…
I understand, Mark X and agree with that point. Thats what I just said in my comment to Smartman. Seeing the dollars roll in becomes this siren song and they got blinded into letting them become their sole customer. You made a great point and in that case, you’re correct. My friends were warned but more than just me and made the wrong choice.
Towns make the same mistake by letting them come in tax free. They then drive off the other businesses that were paying taxes. People have to look at the long term big picture and if they do, WalMart doesn’t look as good as it seems to at first.
This happened a few years back, Chuck. All done and over now. He had a great attorney, Walmart had banks of attornies. He pretty much lost it all and started over.
And you know, even setting that aside, there’s about 100 reasons to not shop there. If we want to support “American Made”, 90% + of their product come from China or India.
If I wanted to be around that many mutants of society, Id shop in (insert your favorite WT town here______________).
Im a huge fan of hometown business. Mom and Pop stores. I know they can’t all survive but I frequent them when I can. This place is the antihisis of that and has done so much to hurt small town business, all in exchange for “saving” on the goods you buy, when its not always the best choice.
Add to that keeping most of your staff under 40 hours so you don’t have to provide benefits. A fellow Sprinter, after all else failed, joined their fast track management program to be a regional director. He left in a year saying there was just no end to the lies they told to get you in the door. Again, with no retail background, he didnt think through it, but number one, Walmart DEMANDS you only work 40 hours a week in the reg mgr position. Family and all that crap is IMPORTANT to them. Well, he said it was clear day 2 its a 60 hour minimum gig, but unless you’re going in with your eyes closed, you’d have to assume that. Its just not the recruiting line they used.
Deception, poor labor practices, evil in general, non American, unidentifiable life forms who shop there, the list goes on and on. I just prefer Satan of Retailers.
Speaking of words on your ass…. last time I was FORCED to talk in there with my wife….. I run smack dab into a heffer, 6 inches of a GIANT thong showing over rolled down sweat pants and letters on her ass the size of a billboard, “J U I C Y!!”
All I could think was…… “ahhhh… yeah…. I BET. No telling how much gravy is being produced in there!”
And with that…. I ran to the bathroom and threw up.
That is a common practice with retailers. Allow only so many hours or dollars of payroll, then have more shifts to cover and tasks that need completion than can be done with the alloted payroll. Of course, the salaried management ends up working way over the 40 hours and works through paid holidays to make up the difference or gets fired for lack of job performance.
Goes back to the saying “Think globally, Act Locally”.
True in this case.
Walmart keeps prices low through volume purchasing, brutal price negotiation and the most efficient distribution system in the history of man. Top suppliers use Walmarts retail link system which gives them visibility to sales of products at the store level in real time so they know which products to replenish at which distribution centers and when. This just in time system reduces the cost associated with inventory build and warehousing allowing suppliers to tailor their production to actual needs. Many suppliers also get paid on scan, meaning that when your product sells at Walmart you get paid for it electronically. This improves cash flow and reduces borrowing costs since you don’t have to deal with net 60 or net 90 day terms. Are they pricks? Hell yeah, but as I said earlier Walmart has probably saved more businesses then they killed by forcing them to become leaner and meaner. Unless you manufacture a MUST HAVE product, where Walmart needs you more than you need them allowing Walmart to become more than 40% of your revenue puts you on the path to getting crunched. That’s just bad business with bad leadership.
I agree totally with the 40%, Smartman, and thats what I tried to tell my 2 friends. But as we know, the allure of the pied piper and the huge sum of monies coming in becomes the siren song. They little companies see dollar signs, they are convinced it will NEVER end and they sell their souls for more, only to see if vaporize in minutes and wind up in Chapter 11.
But as I said, remove that issue, I still have 100 MORE with them. And for every US based firm they teach to be “just in time” or lean and mean, they back the payrolls of 100 more Chinese firms and all full employment of the under 15 year old work force.
China has a growing personnel problem. The Chinese have traditionally thrown bodies at manufacturing problems. The American response was to develop sophisticated robotics and automation systems to close the price gap. The Chinese are now replacing people with automation and robots but still have to feed and house those bastards. There is also a new boldness among skilled Chinese workers who are not afraid to ask for a raise or job hop. If the Teamsters, SEIU and AFL-CIO had any real tough guy balls they’d be organizing in China.
Wal-Mart started the practice of not paying the vendor until the product is sold but now many other retailers do the same. I know in the auto parts business, Auto Zone has the same practice.
Great comments. Outta my pay grade, but I liked what Paul, Smarty and even Harley had to contribute.
Smarty’s last comment about suppliers getting “paid on scan” was an eye opener.
I had never heard that.
You can see why people wanna sell to those guys.
Chuck, there are all kinds of reasons vendors want to be on that train, its hard to turn down. But here’s my latest entreprenurial idea till I thought it through; I had a water filtering system and endless supply with lost cost of goods sold to sell ice water to people in hell!! I ran the numbers, its a no miss deal.
Fatal flaw; I’d have to be in hell with them to deliver the product.
Thats what a lot of vendors find out in the process of dealing with them. Its called golden handcuffs.
LOW cost of goods sold…. sorry. Fat fingered it.
Chuck, the folks that do pay on scan also do what Walmart calls, VMI, Vendor Managed Inventory. They monitor the sales of their products through Walmarts Retail Link and basically make sure no store is ever out of product, whether they ship to Walmarts DC’s or direct ship to the store. It can be a great program. Now let’s say that you sell your widget to Walmart for $5.00 and they sell it for $10.00. Somebody buys it and returns it…..for any reason; Walmart dings you for $10.00 not $5.00. Plus they charge you to send it back to you unless you want it destroyed. Also, with pay on scan, if your widget doesn’t get scanned, you don’t get paid. So anything that is stolen, or walks out the back door….you lose!
Wow.
What power these guys have.
Ironic that WalMart would show cash register receipts as their registers very often ring up prices that are different then what’s advertised in the store and in fact they are one of the biggest offenders when it comes to this deceitful practice.
If they are doing that, Weights and Measures should do an audit on them. On their audits, they will randomly check 50 items and at least 49 have to be priced correctly. If not, they will come back later. If you still are not at least 98% accurate, fines can start being levied.
also..notice “leavenworth”…and they pick the store. These guys are kings
of crap. the same things is hapening in every business…a few
companies left to grab all the money.
Banks hated the mortgage brokers…got the law changed…forced brokers
out…now the banks control all the lending mortgage biz.
insurance…they did a number there too…now maybe a few insurance
companies to buy from til the exchanges.
The bigger have rigged the game…paid off the politicians and now we’re
left with a few bad ones.
So they grow…these corps are making billions of profits…all on boats
to cayman/switzerland…your boy willard ships his money to
luxembourg! and they give no benefits…beat down the prices of
labor…noone of those people are making a lving wage…50% of people
on food stamps are the working poor! They’re working…but the
wages aren’t sustainable. So they get sick..go to e.r. rooms and
we pay.
So when i say we’ve been fucked…you all understand where we are
now. And this is the last chance for those corps to save their asses.
did you know theres 37 trillion dollars in untaxed profits sitting offshore…
and because they gamed the system we have to pay the taxes to keep
the country going……
folks we’re not broke!!!!! we’re fucked!!!!!!
I agree man.
Let’s see, we haven’t heard much lately about that bribery scandal down in Mexico have we? But that’s how Wal-Mart likes to “play the game.” Not that I needed any further reason to dislike the Evil Empire, but one of the people whose houses I worked on in Joplin in the months after the tornado was employed by Wal-Mart and had gone to Store No. 59 that afternoon to shop and soon found herself trying to get some of the customers to a safe place inside the building, then rendering aid to those who were injured. Meanwhile, clear across town her modest two-bedroom home had already taken a serious hit, although the place was still salvageable. Anyway, she asks Wal-Mart for some time off to deal with her situation and, get this, ultimately gets demoted a few notches because of her request. When I was at the new Store No. 59 on May 22, there was a book people could sign as a show of support for the victims’ families and survivors, but there was no permanent plaque or anything like that in memory of the victims. So they can’t afford to buy a simple bronze plaque? What a sinister, cheapskate, callous operation Wal-Mart is!!!
Wouldn’t the Family and Medical Leave act have applied to this?
Thank you Rick. I rest my case. Nice comment.
how these large corporations don’t pay taxes. Why america is having a
revenue problem….what did romney do to avoid paying taxes…why
tax payers are having to pay the bills of the nation while the corporations
get away paying zero.
Your buddy willard used a lying tax shelter. I read about it.
read it…it will make you want to puke!!!!
son-of-boss.com
a million dollar write off for $50!!!!!!
If this website is credible, why aren’t Obama’s people and the liberals in the press quoting it? Also, what does Ronmey have to do with WalMart?
mikey….see obamas new tvad…..came out yesterday….and yes the libs
are qouting it…..and it will astound people when they see it was the
largest tax scheme in u.s. history.
see mikey…you stalk me and my comments. Which is fine. I have to
educate guys like you…..you’re probably low information voters and
once you see the light you’ll say that harley is right….
so read up on it….go to any political website and read about the new
ad…oh…fox news says obama is up 9 points…..fox news…the right
wing wingnut tv channel.
thanks…hope i made your day.
Check factcheck.org about this ad. It is completely bogus. By the way, I respond to other people on here as well as you and others respond to me. That is not stalking. I like to bust your chops once in awhile because you actually say on here that you are always right. Sorry to break it to you. NOBODY IS ALWAYS RIGHT!!!! Get over yourself!!!
what does wal mart and romney have to do with each other…the waltons
have given millions to his campaign and to crossroads…
and look for the name john paulson to come up in conjunction with mitt
romney…my sources tell me that that will break the camels back for willlard.
jmo!
If you are going to judge a candidate by their donors, how well would your boy Hussein stand up to that?
Mike, give it up. Harely is actually hardly EVER right and is just another extreme lefty who wont listen to any debate if it doesn’t line up with his predisposed conclusion. Thats all there is to it.
Your’e right. It’s fun up to a point but it ultimately becomes “wrestling with a pig” as your grandfather pointed out to you so well. It is still really hard not to argue with this guy as you well know. I better stop before he sends Manny after me or calls his high powered attornies at law4life and sues me!
sorry wilson…you can’t arggue because you never have any stats or
facts.
I used stats and facts to back up what i say….if you disagree show your
intellectual ability…
i’m open to discuss issues but the right wing guys on here have no
facts or info to back up their claims..
lets see what ya got wilson.