Wal-Mart
Does It Best
Wal- Mart, the ultra giant of department stores . “ The speeding truck just waiting to hit something” as it was described by David Glass, a Wal-Mart director and former CEO.
This year Wal-Mart's annual sales will top $270 billion. It's the largest private employer in the United States with more than 1.2 million workers. However, don’t look for exemplary benefits, stellar pay or lavish offices for its top execs. Sharing of $49 a night rooms at the Red Roof Inn is more of what you will find from its brass.
So, is it the frugal way that has helped them reduce costs and save for the ultimate bottom line? That is one part. The other is the immense buying power that they command and the way they are able to dictate the retail market. Their buyers set the tone of the products that are allowed on their shelves and millions of eager suppliers are willing to cooperate. This does not bode well for individuality or, heaven forbid, anything that is controversial.
Wal-Mart exercises its own brand of censorship. If an item does not fit their standards of decency it does not go on a rack. And how and by whom are these standards decided? The individual buyers are the first line of approval. From there merchandise is analyzed through the chain of command, but chances are if the buyer is not buying then you need to go back to the drawing board. Hollywood, the music industry, and major publishing houses are just the tip of the iceberg in the line up for the juggernaut to put their items “on sale.”
Their homespun (i.e.: no Harvard MBAs or the like) managers are more like motivational speakers or a southern Baptist minister who is motivating the congregation to sell-sell-sell. What Wal-mart does best is dominate and decimate. The competitors are dwindling and new challengers are far too few.
Wal-mart is scheduled for world dominance. Date TBA
Until they are in aisle 15, I will visit the shopkeepers who really need my business. See you at the checkout.
Does It Best
Wal- Mart, the ultra giant of department stores . “ The speeding truck just waiting to hit something” as it was described by David Glass, a Wal-Mart director and former CEO.
This year Wal-Mart's annual sales will top $270 billion. It's the largest private employer in the United States with more than 1.2 million workers. However, don’t look for exemplary benefits, stellar pay or lavish offices for its top execs. Sharing of $49 a night rooms at the Red Roof Inn is more of what you will find from its brass.
So, is it the frugal way that has helped them reduce costs and save for the ultimate bottom line? That is one part. The other is the immense buying power that they command and the way they are able to dictate the retail market. Their buyers set the tone of the products that are allowed on their shelves and millions of eager suppliers are willing to cooperate. This does not bode well for individuality or, heaven forbid, anything that is controversial.
Wal-Mart exercises its own brand of censorship. If an item does not fit their standards of decency it does not go on a rack. And how and by whom are these standards decided? The individual buyers are the first line of approval. From there merchandise is analyzed through the chain of command, but chances are if the buyer is not buying then you need to go back to the drawing board. Hollywood, the music industry, and major publishing houses are just the tip of the iceberg in the line up for the juggernaut to put their items “on sale.”
Their homespun (i.e.: no Harvard MBAs or the like) managers are more like motivational speakers or a southern Baptist minister who is motivating the congregation to sell-sell-sell. What Wal-mart does best is dominate and decimate. The competitors are dwindling and new challengers are far too few.
Wal-mart is scheduled for world dominance. Date TBA
Until they are in aisle 15, I will visit the shopkeepers who really need my business. See you at the checkout.
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