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Wal-mart’s competitors and their ability to imitate wal-mart’s advantages
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Walmart success and failures
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Wal-Mart has quickly become the world's largest company with its one stop shopping convenience and low prices. There is no debating that Wal-Mart is a dominating force in the American and world economy. However, there is a clash between two different views of how Wal-Mart achieved this status. The defenders of Wal-Mart say that they are so successful because they are market savvy and make good economic decisions. The other side argues that Wal-Mart only became successful by killing off all their competition with their low prices. The only thing that matters to those that like the company is that they save consumers money through their low prices, but you cannot tell this to all the owners of smaller stores that Wal-Mart has put out of business, such as Gary E. Hawkins. The CEO of a family-owned supermarket in New York, he said "It will be a sad day in this country if we wake up one morning and all we find is a Wal-Mart on every corner." This is obviously a conflict of different interests, and it is unclear as to whether Wal-Mart is beneficial or harmful to the economy.
Wal-Mart grew to its enormous size mainly because of the low prices it offers its consumers, which seems to be an obvious benefit to the economy. New England Consulting estimated that Wal-Mart saved U.S. customers $20 billion in 2002 alone. With the price cuts other retailers make to compete with them factored in this total reaches $100 billion. When you combine these savings with the convenience of being able to buy ones food, clothing, electronics, gas, and almost anything else one could desire in one place you have a winning formula. The low prices they charge get them large percentages of the consumer's money, which in turn allows them to charge such low pri...
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...their success. As Edward Weller of ThinkEquity Partners said, "I don't think Wal-Mart can ever be underestimated, they are so very good."
Bibliography
1. Bianco, Anthony and Zellner, Wendy, BusinessWeek: Is Wal-Mart Too Powerful? Oct. 6, 2003.
2. Elliot, Dorinda and Powell, Bill, Time: Wal:Mart Nation, Jun. 27, 2005.
3. Forbes:http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/invest/forbes/P100080.asp?GT1=5809, Wal-Mart's Next Victims.
4. Kirkland, Rik, Fortune: Wal-Mart's RX for Health Care, April 3, 2006.
5. Lavelle, Marianne, U.S. News & World Report: Wal-Mart's Most Wanted, Jun. 27, 2005.
6. Mansfield, Edwin and Behravesh, Nariman, Economics U$A, W.W. Norton and Company, New York, 2005.
7. McGinn, Daniel, Newsweek: Wal-Mart Hits the Wall, Nov. 14, 2005.
8. Zimmerman, Ann, Wall Street Journal: Wal-Mart Boss's Unlikely Role: Corporate Defender-in-Chief, Jul. 26, 2005.
In order to gain the success it has had, Wal-Mart has no doubt affected small businesses. But in the place of small business Wal-Mart has been able to do far more for Americans than small businesses could. It provides consumers inexpensive necessities for life, it provides work for those who would otherwise have none, and it has a stake in the global economy that benefits our own with trading. Wal_mart
Walmart is bad for America, as some say. The Globalization essay that was handed out in class had many good points. It states that Walmart puts many smaller businesses out of service. A recent study by David Neumark of the University of California at Irvine and two associates at the Public Policy Institute of California, "The Effects of Wal-Mart on Local Labor Markets," uses sophisticated statistical analysis to estimate the effects on jobs and wages as Wal-Mart spread out from its original center in Arkansas. The authors find that retail employmen...
Wal-Mart has been of a great advantage to the US economy, being the world’s largest private employer thus providing more jobs. Wal-Mart is currently employing 1.5 million which equals to the population of 12 states. In addition, Wal-Mart has caused the lowering of prices of competitors known as the ‘Wal-Mart effect’, this saved Americans approximately $100 billion in 2002. (Hansen) On a smaller degree, this caused an individual American to save 15 to 20 percent of their income on necessities, allowing the surplus to be utilized in a fashion that allows an expenditure which fulfills a specific luxury to the individual, for example a car etc.. From my point of view, this allows the less advantaged to be able to purchase beyond necessities, and causing more money to spread through the market rather than the recycl...
Wal-Mart represents the sickness of capitalism at its almost fully evolved state. As Jim Hightower said, "Why single out Wal-Mart? Because it's a hog. Despite the homespun image it cultivates in its ads, it operates with an arrogance and avarice that would make Enron blush and John D. Rockefeller envious. It's the world's biggest retail corporation and America's largest private employer; Sam Robson Walton, a member of the ruling family, is one of the richest people on earth. Wal-Mart and the Waltons got to the top the old-fashioned way: by roughing people up. Their low, low prices are the product of two ruthless commandments: Extract the last penny possible from human toil and squeeze the last dime from its thousands of suppliers, who are left with no profit margin unless they adopt the Wal-Mart model of using nonunion labor and shipping production to low-wage hellholes abroad." (The Nation, March 4th 2002 www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020304&s=hightower).
Wal-Mart is one of the largest corporations in the world, and leads the pack of American retail stores in terms of size and sales income. The size of Wal-Mart allows the store to provide consumers with lower prices than most other retail chains, and much lower prices than small, "mom and pop" stores. Because of these reasons, is Wal-Mart a help or a hindrance; should Wal-Mart be given special consideration (i.e. tax breaks, location decisions); and should Wal-Mart be held responsible for improving economic and social conditions in communities in which it operates?
...be purchased at discount prices, saving people money they can choose to spend elsewhere or even save. While saving customers time and money, Wal-Mart also contributes to the local economy by adding countless employment opportunities to the communities where they are established. Wal-Mart is also there to help local, national, and worldwide charitable organizations through its philanthropic foundations and partnerships. Aside from these benefits, who can argue with the sheer fun of the come as you are atmosphere of the store and its diverse employment standards? Nowhere else can you go shopping and people watch then at your local Wal-Mart store.
Wal-Mart, a "Big-Box Retailer" employs more than 2.1 million associates worldwide and has two-thousand seven-hundred stores in the United States with many more in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Central America, Chile, China, Germany, Japan, Korea, India, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the United Kingdom, making Wal-Mart the largest retailer in the world. "Wal-Mart accounts for upward of 30 percent of U.S. sales, and plans to more than double its sales within the next five years" (Lynn 29-36). Why is Wal-Mart so successful, and is Wal-Mart actually bad for America?
Walmart is one of the most successful franchises of all time and continues to take fire from multiple angles, whether it’s about the costing of jobs, the wages, the health insurance, the small business destruction, or the environmental impact, but can always back itself up by negating those claims with facts that proves that it is beneficial to the community.
Within an excerpt from, “The United States of Wal-Mart,” John Dicker explains that Wal-Mart is a troubling corporation. Dicker begins his article by discussing why the store is so popular within the news in an age of global terrorism, coming to the conclusion that Wal-Mart has a huge scope in the United States and that it has more scandals, lawsuits, and stories than any other supercenter. Continually, he goes on to explain that Wal-Mart outsources jobs and their companies demands makes it hard for employees to have livable wages and good working conditions. Furthermore, Dicker addresses the claim that Wal-Mart provides good jobs, by destroying this perception with statistics showing how employees live in poverty and that their union scene
In 1962, Wal-Mart opened their first store in Rogers, Arkansas. In 1970, Wal-Mart's first distribution center and home office in Bentonville, Ark. open and Wal-Mart went public on the New York Stock Exchange. Just nine years from that, Wal-Mart's annual sales exceeded one billion dollars. In 1988, Wal-Mart super centers opened across the country. In a merely three years from that, Wal-Mart opened their own store in Mexico City, Mexico; making Wal-Mart an international corporation. Not even sixty years has past, and yet, Wal-Mart is over-powering our country.
Mallaby admits Wal-Mart can treat their employees and other retailers unfairly, but as a result everyone can share in the 50 billion in savings that American shoppers consume annually. The pay that employees get is the price they must pay for low priced merchandise. Because of the minimal pay to employees, Wal-Mart strengthens its’ consumer buying power. Giving the American shoppers the savings they need, Wal-Mart’s has ultimately been them successful. Wal-Mart has potentially wiped out the middle class as an employer, but the employees can now work and ...
Quinn, Bill. How Walmart Is Destroying America (and the world), And What You Can Do About It. Third Edition. Ten Speed Press, 2005. Print.
Walmart is a company that can be seen from many different perspectives. Due to its vast size; it can be easy to identify its faults and environmental issues surrounding the company. However, they are well aware of these problems and criticisms and have made many efforts towards issues around the world. The motivation and desire Walmart have to improve the world we live in today can be seen through their treatment of employees, suppliers as well as their efforts towards the environment and other humanitarian issues. Given this, there is still endless resources on the web proving the company to be one of a negative burden on society.
The Wal-Mart stores had six different environmental analyses that are been given in this case study. They are some other major facts that are listed and can be listed under this general environment analysis. The first factor is economic factors Wal-Mart are having different economic conditions in tim...
The benefits or competitive advantage Wal-Mart derived over the years from its supply chain management practices is also covered. The reason Wal-Mart is ahead of their competition is because they invest in technology in the 1980s. This investment paid off in the long run. Wal-Mart invested heavily in IT and communication systems to effectively track sales and merchandise inventories in stores across the country. They have set up own satellite communication in 1983. Employees at the stores have the ‘Magic Wand’ at hand. These barcode scanners allow you to check the prices of items at that particular store by scanned the barcode on the product. This is especially helpful when there is clearance that isn 't always marked and sometimes clearance items are cheaper than they