General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Walmart Is Falling Apart Before Our Eyes [View all]laundry_queen
(8,646 posts)First, squeezing their suppliers until the suppliers go bankrupt, so that those suppliers can no longer either supply them, or supply them at the prices Walmart demands.
Then, paying their employees so terribly that the employees can hardly even afford to shop at Walmart.
Then, expanding so quickly that their 'superior supply chain model' cannot keep up (as well as their now bankrupt suppliers) so there are empty shelves everywhere, so the people that DO shop at Walmart get frustrated and go somewhere else.
Also, keeping the min amount of cashiers so people have to wait 20 min to get through a line also drives shoppers elsewhere. I'll pay an extra $0.03 for a jug of juice if it means I can get out of the store in 5 minutes instead of 20.
Having your "brand" associated (fairly or not) with really shitty quality means that when you do raise prices even slightly, people won't buy your goods. For example, Walmart clothing is really not that horrible for quality, when compared with other stores. But they have the reputation of crappy, cheap clothes, so no one will buy a t-shirt there for $20 when they can get an equally crappy, but 'brand name' one for $22. Walmart's marketing campaigns, from the beginning, should've concentrated more on value. They should've also not been so cut throat with their suppliers in exchange for better quality, even if it meant a small difference in margin. Their supplier practices is what gave them shitty quality goods and gave them this reputation. Now that their prices are NOT the lowest around, since everyone else has caught on and is doing the same thing, they have this perception problem. Bad decision making from the top - not considering all the consequences of their practices. That's what happens when management has tunnel vision.
And finally, outsourcing nearly all manufacturing, or only buying from suppliers that do in order to get rock bottom prices, means they destroy domestic jobs, which means people buy less overall. Also, by paying their own employees less, as the country's largest employer they set the wages and lower wages all over the country means less money for sales.
For years, Walmart profited off of the lag of their practices. What I mean is, all of their practices worked for short term increases in profits, but destroyed the economy of the entire country in the long term. Unfortunately, their executives were not long-term thinkers. Well, unfortunately for them. I don't think the rest of us are all broken up about it, lol.