The end of Wal-Mart?

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/TheEndOfTheWalMartEra.aspx

Rival retailers lured Americans away from Wal-Mart's low-price promise by offering greater convenience, more selection, higher quality or better service. Amid the country's growing affluence, Wal-Mart has struggled to overhaul its down-market, politically incorrect image while other discounters pitched themselves as more upscale and more palatable alternatives.

The Internet has changed shoppers' preferences and eroded the commanding influence Wal-Mart had over its suppliers. As a result, American shoppers are increasingly looking for qualities that Wal-Mart has trouble providing.

"For the first time in a long time, quality has a chance to gain on price," says Lee Peterson, a vice president at WD Partners, an Ohio brand-consulting firm.

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The end? probably not, but its a start.

to remove the asphalt and haul away the ugly concrete block buildings when they leave :)

they come to communities, pave over a ton of space, throw up an ugly-ass building and then run away to the next community when their "freebie tax" time runs out.....leaving those ugly empty buildings for the towns to patrol , to keep vandals away..
and of course, by the time they leave, local business people have long ago shut down their small businesses, so people still drive to the next town to shop at the "newer...bigger...sparkle-ier" walmart:grr:

When growth took off on the north side of town, so did business. So with the help of our local tax dollars, (can you say corporate welfare?) Walmart opened a new super center on the north side of town. True to their selfish, don't-give-a-fuck-about-the-community nature, they put lots of restrictions on who can lease the old space -- no retail. It will likely turn into a huge, empty eyesore. Already several small businesses in that location have closed or have had to re-locate to survive.

Everyone should see the movie, "Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price." Sadly, I suspect many are like my sister -- "I don't want to know cuz then I would feel guilty shopping there." :grr: How do you fight apathy like that?

Blackmailed the city council into giving them huge tax breaks, by saying "If you dont us a tax break, we'll just build the store outside the city limits".

And as soon as those tax breaks expired, they closed the store, and built a new one outside the city limits. The city didnt get a dime in tax revenue from them.

It was mostly for space, because the old one was getting really really crowded. Lowes has done the same thing, and both the buildings they were in are empty but the city does have plans for new stores to open in them. I dont know what, but I hope they'll be better retailers. I'd like to see a Best Buy store open here so we can have some good higher end electronics available instead of the cheap low end shit walmart sells.

and a HUGE asphalt parking lot with zero cars.. of course the cops bring the hammer down when kids skateboard there..but that's beside the point..

When the big-empty happened, it killed the little food places in that center, as well as the one-year old theater..so now we have a whole shopping center with a Yoshinoya (don't know how they stay in business there), and a revolving supply of thrift stores, used-bread stores & other small businesses that open, and close with a few months..

It had been a Home Base ...

It's sat there, empty for YEARS!!

Still has little stores making bussiness. The new super walmart also has a string of stores next to it that opened about the same time. Location plays a key role usually...

Last few times I'v been in their was for a movie, computer games, and a paintball gun. If your into paintball, the one I picked that they had was a Spyder Pilot ACS http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5969591 Actually its best thing I bought from them. Its an awsome gun, the other ones are garbage.

Every time they come and ask for a tax abatement, we show up with big posters of abandoned sites. It would be political suicide for a Commissioner to take their side.

I have never, and never will, set foot in one of the awful places.

And I have always hoped that Sam Walton spent his last years in mind-shredding pain.

I don't know why but it's odd because much of the excavation work was in process, including re-routing a local road. I never understood the decision to build this store in the first place considering there are already 3 within a 12 mile radius.

This could be the best thing that's happened there in a long time.

Good riddance. But, yeah. Leave it to them to leave behind the eyesore in progress.

that one of the things driving people to the competitors is avoiding Wal-Mart's "white trash" reputation.

I read a comment recently that Sunday is the best day to go to Wal-Mart, because that's the day the 'usual' Wal-Mart customers will be at home watching NASCAR and beating their wives.

The dangers of shopping at China's best customer.

Wal-mart destroyed more than rival retailers - U.S manufactoring as well.

Wal-Mart had been a major customer for years, but several years ago, Wal-Mart basically forced them to ship their product to Guangzhou (Canton) China. Even though the production costs were basically the same in the US as they were in China, WM basically said that their goods must be sent to Guangzhou (basically, so WM could get the bulk shipping discount when sending it back to the US) - so, it was either move their manufacturing to China, or go out of business because they couldn't afford to ship their goods to China to have them turn around and be shipped back to the US...

into skating rinks or some kind of place for youth activity. Keep them off the streets and give them constructive place to go.....

Where has that been happening?

Americans are losing buying power almost by the day now as the dollar plummets against other major currencies. People who would otherwise shop at markets one traunch up, like Target (or whatever the next highest increment is), are being pushed down to shopping at Wal-Mart, so for every customer they lose because they become too expensive (due to trade inequities) they gain other customers who previously shopped at higher-quality outlets.

Here where I live, people who never would have considered buying groceries at Wal-Mart have left more expensive stores like Safeway to shop there more cheaply. This stock is in our portfolio for this reason: the inevitability of the trickle-down shopper. Hell, Wall-Mart even wants to become your banker, your lender, your everything.

The one unknown is the dropping dollar, which is going to push the prices at even a junk shop like WM up substantially, since the Yuan will adjust upward.

Because Wal-Mart buys in bulk, they can negotiate much cheaper prices for brand name products.

I have to laugh at the notion that we are becoming more affluent. This is simply a bald-faced lie, at least for more than 90% of the nation.

I mean, can you shop for one week's worth of groceries and get out of that store for under $100, and that is not including medicines, cosmetics, auto supplies, etc... Look at the escalating price of vegetables, meat. I paid four dollars for about 50 blueberries the other day. Bernanke says inflation is under control--this is a ludicrous assertion.