Wal-Mart prices going up

[OhioChick]

The mega-retailer has been raising prices faster than mainstream grocery stores, losing some of its discount lead.

Monday, August 16, 2010 2:00 PM

Wal-Mart (WMT) has been quietly raising its prices, giving little weight to fears that shoppers may have less spending money if deflation takes hold.

A recent study by JPMorgan Securities found that the mega-retailer has upped prices by nearly 6% over the last six weeks, according to The New York Post.

Analysts studied pricing at a Wal-Mart supercenter in Virginia, and found that a 32-ounce bottle of Windex, for example, saw an increase from $1.97 to $2.97. A 12-ounce box of Quaker Oats saw a 65% increase, and the price of a container of Tide detergent jumped 50%.

Reuters blames the price increase on the rising costs of raw materials and oil. But that's only a small part of the story, since competitors like Safeway (SWY) only raised prices by about 1% in that same period. Kroger (KR) and Whole Foods (WFMI) even cut prices during that time.

More: http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/top-stocks/blog.aspx?post=1793098&_blg=1,1793098

[Kerrytravelers]

1. Of course. They wait until they've killed off the local competition, then the prices go up.

[OhioChick]

2. Just as planned n/t

[Jkid]

8. Exactly as Planned

[RKP5637]

3. Yep, that's what we think too. Also, they now have herds of people trained and

indoctrinated to shop at Wal$mart. Now it's generational, blind adherence to Wal$mart, and often no competition. Ain't the USA GREAT!

[JoeyT]

5. +1

That's exactly what they did here in a city of about 11k people. They came in and shut down four grocery stores, a small but thriving farmer's market, and all the produce stores. Then their prices on food pretty much doubled.

For some reason I thought selling at a loss to destroy competition was against the law.

[rurallib]

4. They ain't that much cheaper anyway - more expensive on many items

There are a few things we must buy there, so I compare prices. They've got a bunch of people fooled.

[Luciferous]

6. I noticed that today when I was there

A few of the items that I normally buy there have gone up a lot in the past couple of weeks. Whole wheat pasta went up 12 cents a box, and Mountain Dew has gone up almost $2 for a 24 pack! I had been grocery shopping there for the last 6 months or so because the prices were lower than the local supermarket, but now that they are raising their prices I will be shopping locally again.

[divvy]

7. This story makes no sense whatsovever.

quote:

Wal-Mart (WMT) has been quietly raising its prices, giving little weight to fears that shoppers may have less spending money if deflation takes hold.

end quote

If deflation takes hold, then prices go down and shoppers have more money to spend. When prices go up, that is inflation not deflation, and that is when shoppers have less money to spend.

There are few journalists who grasp even the simplest concepts of finance or economics.

[SocialistLez]

9. I'd gladly pay more if they paid their people living wages...

That goes for ANY company.

[wcast]

10. I can get better prices at my two local stores

I sometimes shop at Walmart as it's the only department store in my whole county, and is 15 minutes away. I'd have to drive an hour north or south to go to any other store. That said, I do my grocery shopping locally as I can find items on sale that easily beat walmart, and one of our stores is even Union, which is where I shop the most. In fact, I switched from using the other store as my main store, to using the union one.

[SocialistLez]

11. I'm glad you have those options.

When it comes to grocery, we have lots of options but none of them are very attractive.

There is a locally owned grocery store which tries to have a lot of locally grown foods. I wouldn't do ALL my shopping there because I'd spend substantially more. They are not union BTW.

There is Kroger which has a union but they don't really pay union wages.
Wal-Mart....I think we all know how they operate.
Whole Foods...I can get SOME things there but not everything.