Ben Ball

Wal-Mart Taking Hits Over Price, Selection

March 9, 2010

FROM RETAILWIRE:
Two separate articles conclude that Wal-Mart Stores is having a tougher go of it since the economy began to rebound, in part because a wide variety of competitors have found ways to beat the world's largest retailer on price. Do you see Wal-Mart as being more vulnerable to competition today than in the past?      [more...]

Did Wal-Mart go too far in SKU rationalization? Of course they did.

Why? Because you can never know for sure how far is right until you go too far. Then you adjust.

This is classic Wal-Mart. Push the limits, either through testing multiple concepts or implementing in-store experiments with things like in-store TV. Read the results fast and react accordingly. That's why they are at the top of the retailing world. And as long as they don't change either that management practice or their single-minded focus on lowest prices every day, they will stay there.