Texan, Eric Wallace on faith, family, texas, and more where that came from.
Reuters is reporting that Wal-Mart is set to open 400 in-store clinics:
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said on Tuesday that it will contract with local hospitals and other organizations to open as many as 400 in-store health clinics in the next two to three years.
Should current market forces continue, the world’s largest retailer said up to 2,000 clinics could be in Wal-Mart stores over the next five to seven years.
I guess Wal-Mart is working to answer Business Week’s Mid-life crisis.
Business Week looks at Wal-Mart’s Midlife Crisis: Declining growth, increasing competition, and not an easy fix in sight
For nearly five decades, Wal-Mart’s signature “everyday low prices” and their enabler—low costs—defined not only its business model but also the distinctive personality of this proud, insular company that emerged from the Ozarks backwoods to dominate retailing. Over the past year and a half, though, Wal-Mart’s growth formula has stopped working. In 2006 its U.S. division eked out a 1.9% gain in same-store sales—its worst performance ever—and this year has begun no better. By this key measure, such competitors as Target, Costco (COST), Kroger (KR), Safeway (SWY), Walgreen’s (WAG), CVS, and Best Buy (BBY) now are all growing two to five times faster than Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart’s botched entry into cheap-chic apparel is emblematic of the quandary it faces. Is its alarming loss of momentum the temporary result of disruptions caused by transitory errors like the T-shirt screwup and by overdue improvements such as the store remodeling program launched last year? Or is Wal-Mart doing lasting damage to its low-budget franchise by trying to compete with much hipper, nimbler rivals for the middle-income dollar? Should the retailer redouble its efforts to out-Target Target, or would it be better off going back to basics?
They might want to stick to what they do best. I have heard from far too many suburban housewives that Wal-Mart feels more like the UN than anything hip or chic.
The article paints a favorable picture for Kroger at present:
Consider the return to form of Kroger Co., the largest and oldest U.S. supermarket chain. Cincinnati-based Kroger competes against more Wal-Mart Supercenters—1,000 at last count—than any other grocer. Which is why until recently the only real interest Wall Street took in the old-line giant was measuring it for a coffin. Today, though, a rejuvenated Kroger is gaining share faster in the 32 markets where it competes with Wal-Mart than in the 12 where it does not.
A recent Bank of America (BAC) survey of three such markets—Atlanta, Houston, and Nashville—found that Kroger’s prices were 7.5% higher on average than Wal-Mart’s, compared with 20% to 25% five years ago. This margin is thin enough to allow Kroger to again bring to bear such “core competencies” as service, quality, and convenience, says BofA’s Scott A. Mushkin, who recently switched his Kroger rating to buy from sell. “We’re saying the game has changed, and it looks like it has changed substantially in Kroger’s favor,” he says.
Business Week looks at How Wal-Mart’s TV Prices Crushed Rivals
Last “Black Friday,” for its annual post-Thanksgiving sales blitz, Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) decided to slash the price of one of the hottest electronics items for the holidays—the 42-inch flat-panel TV—to $988. The world’s largest retailer had staked similarly audacious positions before, in numerous product categories, as part of its quest to remain U.S. retailing’s “low-price leader.” In turn, Wal-Mart’s move caused a freefall in prices of flat-panel televisions at hundreds of retailers—to the glee of many people who were then able to afford their first big-screen plasma or liquid-crystal-display model.
Now, it is becoming apparent that Wal-Mart’s calculated decision to break the $1,000 barrier for flat-panel TVs triggered a disastrous financial meltdown among some consumer-electronics retailers over the past four months.
The fallout is evident: After closing 70 stores in February, Circuit City Stores (CC) on Mar. 28 laid off 3,400 employees and put its 800 Canadian stores on the block. Tweeter Home Entertainment Group (TWTR), the high-end home entertainment store, is shuttering 49 of its 153 stores and dismissed 650 workers. Dallas-based CompUSA is closing 126 of its 229 stores, and regional retailer Rex Stores (RSC) is boarding up dozens of outlets, as well as selling 94 of its 211 stores. “The tube business and big-screen business just dropped off a cliff,” says Stuart Rose, chief executive officer of Dayton-based Rex Stores. “We expected a dropoff, but nowhere near the decline that we had.” Clearly, these retailers are taking such drastic measures because they don’t see any respite in sight.
I love the lower prices, but I wonder just how much quality we compromise for the sake of lower prices. What about you?
The Dallas Morning News reports that Kroger is doing well in D-FW area. My own experience has shown Kroger to be much stronger here, but these hard numbers show Kroger is up 3.5% since 2004.
Kroger, the No. 2 U.S. grocer after Wal-Mart, seems to have figured out best how to live with the new reality.
Besides Wal-Mart and SuperTarget, Kroger was the only chain to gain market share in D-FW among the big six operators last year, according to data compiled by Market Scope, a publication of ACNielsen Trade Dimensions.
“Kroger is the only Wal-Mart rival thats had continuity, and its held up very well and continues to gain market share,” said Ed Fox, a marketing professor at Southern Methodist University who has studied the local grocery market for several years. “Tom Thumbs ability to compete was damaged by the change in ownership to Safeway, who tried to make all the stores homogenous. They’ve stabilized and are looking good relative to Albertsons.”
I keep waiting for Albertsons to pull out of this market entirely. The Albertsons at Custer and McDermott in Allen is one awful store.
DallasNews.com: Grocers hope to pass taste tests
Two of the most closely watched U.S. specialty food chains – both with roots deep in the heart of Texas – are putting their faith in Dallas-area residents to help them define their next steps in food retailing.
Competitors known for their innovations, Whole Foods Market Inc. and H.E. Butt Grocery Co.’s Central Market swear it’s just a coincidence that they’re each opening their chain’s next-generation stores in D-FW today. In Southlake, shoppers will help Central Market decide if it’s landed on the right suburban concept to make the leap outside of Texas.
In Dallas, the new Whole Foods at Preston Road and Forest Lane will help the Austin-based chain decide if it’s going to become a major spa operator.
It is very interesting to watch the grocery business go increasingly upscale as the battle the Wal-Mart juggernaut.
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