Is it " TIME " to rethink Walmart?

[argonsagas]

This lengthy article speaks of the harm done to small stores, as well as medium=sized businesses because of the actions and demands on suppliers made by stores such as Walmart

From TIME:

https://time.com/6307359/government-ftc-walmart-prices/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us

[Vmass]

Last year I purchased a new Husqvarna lawn tractor and made a point of buying it from an independent power equipment company that was a 25 mile drive, instead of purchasing for less money at Lowe's which was less than a 2 mile drive.

Fast forward to this year with only 30 hours of cutting time a tension spring broke ( previous tractor was same Husq with over 500 hours and never had a failure ). I called the dealer where I purchased it from and asked for the part, " we will need to order it and not sure when it will arrive ", I placed the order.

I called 3 indenpendent shops, one declined to order and another told me they had already been waiting for 6 months to recieve the part.

Not wanting to wait, since the mower was inoperable, I decided to check Amazon to find no shortage of options. I ordered the part on Sunday night and had it at my door on Monday afternoon.

I say it's too late to reverse the change that has happened over the past two decades. Malls getting bulldozered, empty retail buildings everywhere. I can't imagine that following the pandemic with work at home increase, that we will avoid a commercial real estate crisis......of the government bail-out type.

This country is continuing to move in the direction of wharehouse purchasing vs. brick & mortar retail.

Within the past 5 years, I have had massive warehouses built in every direction, within just a few miles of my home with more coming.

Two years ago there was an auction for a mall 3 miles from me. A local guy bought it for 7.5 million and turned around months later and sold it for 75 million! Purchaser is going through the approval process to build two warehouses on spec, as there is no known tenants backing the build.

[Suzukian]

In Danbury Ct. the Danbury Fair Mall is expanding. It will become a 24 hour center, they are even adding apartments. That's happening in a lot of places. There are massive malls that failed as they did nothing else with their land, and zoning doesn't help. I have a local shop I get some stuff from, but to be honest, Amazon, or Jack's Small Engine Part's is much quicker. This paradigm shift has been happening for 30 years.

[Big Block]

The world is a different place. There's a bunch of factors. With the dizzying amount of choice when buying a product these days how on earth can we expect a small business to carry all the choices and then carry the parts to service those choices? Customers want cheap prices too and value quality products and service less than ever.
Heck I've went to plumbing stores for small parts to repair issues in the house and if the stuff is 10 years old you're lucky to find repair parts that are the same.

[trent]

Walmart

That place seems to come up around campfire or vortex every once in a while..

When I'm at home and not somewhere out of my home working , I try to split my spending between Walmart and small local businesses .

Just a while back , wife decides after watching some home decorating show that she wanted to paint the dining room.

Simular color as rest of the rooms , this surprised me cause she always has said she didn't like rooms painting different colors??

Since it's only gonna take a gallon ,2 ??I get it from hardware general store half mile away.

But then wife decides we should also do kitchen and small pantry and small laundry room same color,

kitchen
pantry,laundry room toward back of house , so it kinda makes sense ??? I just go along with process lol

So were gonna need much more paint, walmart sells same paint and we have the recipe/code
so I went to walmart for the rest, the paint was a third of what local guy wanted..so it made sense to drive few extra miles.



In central Missouri, dollar general stores are popping up everywhere., small towns , places that had nothing but a Casey's gas station.

Sometimes I'll see a dollar general out in what seems to be the middle of nowhere along a two lane blacktop.



My home town, had a big mall built in mid seventies ,when I moved away it was going downhill, and at one point looked doomed, I went back to visit and it looked empty.

but I guess they brought it back

[Nessism]

Lovelady Hardware is about a mile away from me. It's an old school type place with a wonderful hardware section that shames their competitors in that regard. The original owners sold out to a couple of guys that turned into an Ace store, but they kept the hardware section. And raised prices. I like to support these guys and keep them afloat, because when you NEED a fastener, they have it. The prices are just crazy now, though. Well north of McMaster-Carr, for those familiar. A few months back I bought something like 20 6mm x 20mm cap head screws, with lock washers and nuts, and the total was more than $40. Just stupid. I paid, and swore that I won't go back unless I've got a gun to my head.

And FWIW, I'm a huge Amazon guy. They have everything. I love McMaster also. They don't sell junk, and their prices are pretty fair all and all. Will call is my friend!

[rphillips]

Exactly what Big Block said, The world is a different place now and won't stop changing. I'd love to buy from local family owned stores, like we did in the past when that was all we had, but few could, or would, spend an extra appx. 30% just to keep them going. Now it seems Amazon and Ebay is taking a bite out of the Walmart and Home Depot's just as they did the little family stores.. I guess just part of living in the real world.

[Grimly]

I'm glad I've got the Farmer's Co-op store near me, as their selection of hardware is fairly decent.
They've gradually moved towards small packets of stuff, though. That's annoyingly more expensive than it used to be.
I get where they're coming from with that - lower costs of retail, everything in that range is packeted and easily accounted, saves a load of time on stock-taking, etc, etc.
However, I expect the saved costs to be passed on to me, but that never happens.

[LAB3]

30 years ago was when the reins should have been pulled in on Walmart, it's too late for "the enlightened" to do anything about. Not enough of us.

[Suzukian]

"Wal-China-Mart", let's be real. I try to hit our local hardware shop, it was from another era. 3 years ago, the landlord tripled the rent, they moved to another part of town. It really hurt them and their inventory. They barely have anything now, and if they don't have it, they aren't interested in getting it for you, and have a lot of attitude now. I kind of feel sorry about them, but being a loyal customer for 20 years, I don't appreciate the "tude though. I too find everything I need off of Amazon.

I do check my local motorcycle shop, as those guys will get you anything you need, and fast. They might charge a little more, but I like to keep them in business. They have the 4 makes of Japanese bikes. Funny thing is that if you need a tire, they prefer you buy one and bring it in. The owner told me that people would get a tire, then say they didn't like it. They will only buy stock tires. If you bring in your own tire, you'll get it back mounted and balanced within 2 days, at the most. That way they don't have to deal with someone's mistake in tire style/handling choice.

[trent]

Same thing with grocery stores.

Small town where I bought first house ,fifty miles away from where i currently live had three grocery stores and small walmart.

Walmart built a super Walmart and within a year first grocery store closed, then within 5th year of super Walmart the other two closed.
Before my time there, but older locals say walmart killed the town square ( like everywhere) now just courthouse, tattoo palor, mexican , Chinese restaurant and bunch of empty building

I still go through that town often,
Now just walmart and aldis, kinda discount grocery store for groceries.

There was talk of that town getting a "Woods" grocery store local chain...but the town doesnt fit after some studies by the company ? What i heard.

[Suzukian]

Aldis does have good prices, and goods. I can''t believe that Walmart has not put a SuperWalmart in Danbury. target kicks their but(t0. If they had one like the one at Rte 9 and I-684 in New York, that place is huge, and the Supermarket is amazing. Unlike "B.J.'s", you don't have to buy huge amounts to get good prices. We shop at Aldis often. Our local butcher still can't be beat though, and his prices may be a tiny bit higher, but the quality of the meat more than makes up f\or it

[dpep]

Traditional retail is doomed taking the careers and jobs it provided and the community roles it served into oblivion with it.

The efficiency of Internet commerce compared to store shopping is simply too great to allow anything beyond select niche in-store markets to remain viable going forward. I am not making a judgement (it's complicated); I am just stating the inevitable.

Groceries are one area where due to the nature of the product some local store presence with on premises shoppers will likely survive. But even that will likely be some hybrid of the current model and online.

I must confess that most of the money I spend in a typical month is with Amazon or Aldi. I also do a fair amount of grocery shopping at Winn Dixie supermarkets. They have the rotisserie chicken I chop up for my dog. There was a report in the paper here last week that the Winn Dixie chain has been sold.......to Aldi.

[LAB3]

Aldi is OK although I prefer Sav-A-Lot since it has pretty much anything you need plus they tend to have good meats at a decent price.

It's Dollar General that's hitting what's left of rural retail the hardest. Once they open the local auto parts, hardware and grocers go down since they stock just enough in the way of "Anchor Items" to make a dent in other businesses.

[Suzukian]

No Sav-A-Lots around here. We "Ocean State Job Lots", which can be pretty awesome. I picked up quarts of pure Pomegranate Juice there for $1.00 a bottle . You never know what they have though, so you have to remember to go there, and I've walked out of there many times purchasing nothing.