walmart to smash competition

[geiger]

Walmart loves to shock and awe. City-size stores, absurdly low prices ($8 jeans!) and everything from milk to Matchbox toys on its shelves. And with the recession forcing legions of stores into bankruptcy, the world's largest retailer now apparently wants to take out the remaining survivors.

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1920698,00.html

i'm glad to see they'll do it with improving their services instead of price dumping.

but the end result is clear, no competition...they become monopolists.
that will be the day when consumers will suffer.
no competition=bad, very bad

corporations these days have way too much power...they can buy most things and crush potential competition.

some might like this idea, i do not...i'm for a mixed market where government (elected by the people) take measures for preventing abuse of consumers and allows competition to have a fighting chance. Of course there's the problem of how the government works, but that's another story.
i have personally witnessed consumer abuse by our telecommunication company, where at the time ADSL was becoming popular they used their position to sell obligatory ISDN connections. the monopoly ended by a mixture of anti-trust laws, public uproar and foreign competition.

a free market is not a perfect market and it will never be. of course i'm not for a planned economy, but like always the right way is somewhere in between.

read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_market

i want to have the chance to be rich, but i don't mind not being filthy rich. because once you become that rich you begin to loose perspective. that's why oil companies went over bodies to gain that profit.

[Bogey]

Don't worry.   WalMart will eventually collaspe under it's own weight.   The Mega-chains always have and always will eventually implode.  The reasons vary but the end result is the same.
As far as K-mart goes they suffer from poor management and from the "bean counters" at the top of thier corporate management.
Ditto for Sears which is also owned by the same group that controls K-mart.  Both traded as Sears Holdings. Stock symbol (SHLD).  The corporate culture at SHLD is "Slash and Burn" .  With no real thoughts to competeing with any other chains.  

At one time, both K-Mart and Sears were considered unstopable.   Add to the list; Grant's, J.M. Fields, Gibson stores, Western Auto, Woolworth's and many others.  The  Mega-chains that fail to adapt will surly disappear into history or become only a shadow of thier former self.

And as a consumer, I consider getting the most (or least) value for my $ to be my responsibility.

[geiger]

Bogey - 9/10/2009  6:29 AM

Don't worry.   WalMart will eventually collaspe under it's own weight.   The Mega-chains always have and always will eventually implode.  The reasons vary but the end result is the same.
As far as K-mart goes they suffer from poor management and from the "bean counters" at the top of thier corporate management.
Ditto for Sears which is also owned by the same group that controls K-mart.  Both traded as Sears Holdings. Stock symbol (SHLD).  The corporate culture at SHLD is "Slash and Burn" .  With no real thoughts to competeing with any other chains.  

At one time, both K-Mart and Sears were considered unstopable.   Add to the list; Grant's, J.M. Fields, Gibson stores, Western Auto, Woolworth's and many others.  The  Mega-chains that fail to adapt will surly disappear into history or become only a shadow of thier former self.

And as a consumer, I consider getting the most (or least) value for my $ to be my responsibility.

partially true...but considering how big they are, it's very likely they'll drag down the american consumer with it.


sure it's your responsibility to best invest money, but if you have severely limited choices it's not really that easy, especially for essential goods.  

i think we all agree monopolies are a bad thing? except if you're the one in charge. history is full of examples where quality suffered due to limited supply. a good thing about monopolies is that they eventually implode but that can take 30 years or more. or maybe never...look at DuPont, they own everything and more.
because of limited resources there can be only so much competition. that's why a free market is just as economically destructive as a "socialist" one. if it weren't for a thing called "law" corporation would own us till the last drop of blood.

oh and "they actually do"...considered how much america is in debt, weren't there a calculation of how much money every US citizen owes, what's the number, was it in thousands of dollars?

[North Pack]

Won't be long now Geiger, - it's all over for us, one disaster after another, - last one left be sure to turn the lights off.

[geiger]

North Pack - 9/10/2009  1:46 PM

Won't be long now Geiger, - it's all over for us, one disaster after another, - last one left be sure to turn the lights off.

you're pretty deep in yes. the end? no, of course not.

[North Pack]

Thanks Geiger, - your reassurance is truly heart warming.

[geiger]

North Pack - 9/10/2009  5:47 PM

Thanks Geiger, - your reassurance is truly heart warming.

well look on the bright side, most people still have food on their tables daily. that was not the case 90 years ago.

[Timmyj1959@yahoo.com]

Man you guys scare the be"Jesors" out of me!!Note to self:,,,, I got enough problems being an un employed home builder,,,, keep my happy butt away from the politics gate!! Im gonna go hunting now,,,, Im hungry."Lil Timmy".

[Progun]

Competition and free enterprise sure is a funny thing. What you are seeing with WalMart is success in the market place. When you compete for consumer dollars and a slice of the economic pie, you have winners and losers. That's why those who are smarter, offer a better product or service or lower prices or have more more locations are going  to win a larger slice of the economic pie. Remember, WalMart didn't start out as the largest retailer. They started with one store. They competed well in that market and made a profit. They took those profits and re-invested in more stores using the same formula that worked in the initial market. They grew because they gave consumers what they wanted at a good price. They are at the top of the heap because they deserve to be there. This is not an example of a monopoly by any stretch of the imagination. There are other stores where consumers are free to shop besides WalMart.This is an example of good old AMERICAN ingenuity and out performing the competition. It is true that the Mom and Pop stores can't have as large a slice of the market as WalMart due to their strength of buying power but that is free enterprise. Nobody guarantee's you anything in the market place. You have to earn your keep and compete if you want to win. And the consumer is benefitted by lower prices.This economy is ever changing.Always evolving.Industries come and go. Trades come and go. Valuable skills have their heyday and they too pass away because they get replaced with something better. The wagon wheel manufacturing industry for example had been in existence for over 1000 years all over the world employing and supporting many but as rock solid as it was, it  too fell by the wayside when better forms of transportation came along. Think Goodyear.Full speed ahead is not a sin.Winning in the marketplace is not a sin either.

[Timmyj1959@yahoo.com]

Progun - 9/10/2009 11:23 PM Competition and free enterprise sure is a funny thing. What you are seeing with WalMart is success in the market place. When you compete for consumer dollars and a slice of the economic pie, you have winners and losers. That's why those who are smarter, offer a better product or service or lower prices or have more more locations are going to win a larger slice of the economic pie. Remember, WalMart didn't start out as the largest retailer. They started with one store. They competed well in that market and made a profit. They took those profits and re-invested in more stores using the same formula that worked in the initial market. They grew because they gave consumers what they wanted at a good price. They are at the top of the heap because they deserve to be there. This is not an example of a monopoly by any stretch of the imagination. There are other stores where consumers are free to shop besides WalMart.This is an example of good old AMERICAN ingenuity and out performing the competition. It is true that the Mom and Pop stores can't have as large a slice of the market as WalMart due to their strength of buying power but that is free enterprise. Nobody guarantee's you anything in the market place. You have to earn your keep and compete if you want to win. And the consumer is benefitted by lower prices.This economy is ever changing.Always evolving.Industries come and go. Trades come and go. Valuable skills have their heyday and they too pass away because they get replaced with something better. The wagon wheel manufacturing industry for example had been in existence for over 1000 years all over the world employing and supporting many but as rock solid as it was, it too fell by the wayside when better forms of transportation came along. Think Goodyear.Full speed ahead is not a sin.Winning in the marketplace is not a sin either.

Thank goodness,,, sounds to me like my Wally World will be around for a while after all!! They are close by & have some pellets I need!! "Lil Timmy".

[geiger]

yes exactly. i never said walmart became successful by foul play, we'll probably not that much foul play anyway.

thing is that once a company becomes too big it starts to play dirty. i think anti trust laws should be installed everywhere and price synchronization should be punished.