HOW BIG IS WAL-MART?

[Johnny]

HOW BIG IS WAL-MART?

1 At Wal-Mart, Americans spend $36,000,000 every hour of every day.
2 This works out to $20,928 profit every minute!
3. Wal-Mart will sell more from January 1 to St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) than Target sells all year.
4. Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot + Kroger + Target + Sears + Costco + K-Mart combined.
5. Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people and is the largest private employer.
6. Wal-Mart is the largest company in the history of the World.
7.Wal-Mart now sells more food than Kroger & Safeway combined, and keep in mind they did this in only 15 years.
8. During this same period, 31 Supermarket chains sought bankruptcy (including Winn-Dixie).
9. Wal-Mart now sells more food than any other store in the world.
10. Wal-Mart has approx 3,900 stores in the USA of which 1,906 are SuperCenters;this is 1,000 more than it had 5 years ago.
11.This year, 7.2 billion different purchasing experiences will occur at a Wal-Mart store.
Earth's population is approximately 6.5 billion.)
12.90% of all Americans live within 15 miles of a Wal-Mart
13 Let Wal-Mart bail out Wall Street!

 

[flacoman]

The 6th largest trading partner with China is .. Wal -Mart

 

[addyguy]

And they're just going to get more powerful with the economic downturn...people flock there for the basics when money is tight!

 

[mrsilv04]

Don't they have 5 quart jugs of Pennzoil High Mileage for $12?

Enough said.

 

[mpvue]

Originally Posted By: addyguy
And they're just going to get more powerful with the economic downturn...people flock there for the basics when money is tight!

so, parallel WM's growth w/ the economic downturn and ask yourself is America better off or worse off w/ WM.

 

[oilyriser]

They seem to know how not to waste money. I've never seen fancy stuff like this at a Wal Mart:

$23 million paint job

That's over $1,400 a square foot.

 

[IndyIan]

Originally Posted By: mpvue
Originally Posted By: addyguy
And they're just going to get more powerful with the economic downturn...people flock there for the basics when money is tight!

so, parallel WM's growth w/ the economic downturn and ask yourself is America better off or worse off w/ WM.


I'm thinking trading 1000's of small business owners who made a living wage and paid living wages, for 1000's of people making minimum wage with no benefits is not to the nations benefit...

Walmart is blackhole to a local economy, you throw your money in never to see it again.... I wonder what the U.S. trade deficeit would be with out WM?

Ian

 

[Win]

Pretty big.

When I was in college a mere twenty five years ago, northwest Arkansas was almost completely rural. Now, the urban areas have exploded in size and are practically cosmopolitan. We have a weekend home in NWA and it always astonishes me how fast the area has grown and how very different it is from any other part of Arkansas or the surrounding areas of Oklahoma and Missouri.

All of it is due to Wal Mart HQ, but Tyson Foods HQ and the HQ of most of the nations largest truck lines being located in NWA didn't hurt, either.

 

[ViragoBry]

I guess Wal-Mart has gotten so big due to customers with far more patience with bad shopping experiences than I.

I've finally sworn them off after my 3rd and final 25-minute odyssey in an express lane. They won't be getting another dime of my money until their customer experience has been vastly improved. It has become worth the few dollars more I spend at the Tom Thumb down the street. FAR shorter lines and courteous, helpful, english-speaking staff.

 

[Win]

Originally Posted By: oilyriser
They seem to know how not to waste money. I've never seen fancy stuff like this at a Wal Mart:

$23 million paint job

That's over $1,400 a square foot.


No doubt. Wal Mart HQ is a pretty frugal looking place. If the rest of the nation's business ran as efficiently as WM, we would still be world leaders in all of the areas we are no longer world leaders.

 

[Steve S]

All the Crud would still be imported from China as the people would still buy it from other stores but at a higher price. I do some shopping at Walmart I only but certain things there . As possible I try to avoid made in China products but its inpossible with the electronics etc.

 

[Steve S]

Thet should spend all that money to paint there . Eventually all will have to worship there,

 

[mrsilv04]

Originally Posted By: ViragoBry
I've finally sworn them off after my 3rd and final 25-minute odyssey in an express lane. They won't be getting another dime of my money until their customer experience has been vastly improved.


That's not a corporate problem, that's a management problem at that store.

When that happens, raise a little heck at the Customer Service desk on the way out.

 

[oilyriser]

Maybe WM could buy GM...

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: oilyriser
Maybe WM could buy GM...


Wouldn't the outcome be very similar to the Chinese buying GM?

 

[mpvue]

Originally Posted By: Win
Pretty big.

When I was in college a mere twenty five years ago, northwest Arkansas was almost completely rural. Now, the urban areas have exploded in size and are practically cosmopolitan. We have a weekend home in NWA and it always astonishes me how fast the area has grown and how very different it is from any other part of Arkansas or the surrounding areas of Oklahoma and Missouri.

All of it is due to Wal Mart HQ, but Tyson Foods HQ and the HQ of most of the nations largest truck lines being located in NWA didn't hurt, either.

so, you are saying this is a GOOD thing? why would enlarging urban areas be a good thing? how many factories up north were closed to move them down there? the south has grown due to tax breaks and lack of unions. but the effects are abandoned towns and factories somewhere else. those companies didn't CREATE jobs, they just took them from somewhere else. the south grows while the north flounders.

 

[mpvue]

Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
Originally Posted By: ViragoBry
I've finally sworn them off after my 3rd and final 25-minute odyssey in an express lane. They won't be getting another dime of my money until their customer experience has been vastly improved.


That's not a corporate problem, that's a management problem at that store.

When that happens, raise a little heck at the Customer Service desk on the way out.

well, he just described my local store, maybe we are all shopping at the one bad WM in the whole country?

it IS a corporate problem, it's a store wide corp culture that if prices are low enough, people won't complain about the lack of good service in other areas. why should a lowly store mngr care about fixing anything if his store hits its numbers? like he hasn't heard complaints before.

 

[ViragoBry]

Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
Originally Posted By: ViragoBry
I've finally sworn them off after my 3rd and final 25-minute odyssey in an express lane. They won't be getting another dime of my money until their customer experience has been vastly improved.


That's not a corporate problem, that's a management problem at that store.

When that happens, raise a little heck at the Customer Service desk on the way out.


I think you'd have to visit this store to understand that a visit to the customer service desk for any reason other than a return or an exchange would just be met with a blank stare. I've yet to encounter ANYONE in that store that gives a sh*t. Any why should they? They're apparently all underpaid and overworked...but would unemployment be better?

I won't waste my breath complaining to anyone at that store because it would be met with a deaf ear. But I've seen problems like this resolve themselves before. More and more people get fed up until the store finally becomes unprofitable in the eyes of the corporate office, and they either send someone in to clean it up, or they close it. Either would be fine with me. But until it starts to affect their bottom line, they have no reason to care.

 

[Win]

Originally Posted By: mpvue


so, you are saying this is a GOOD thing? why would enlarging urban areas be a good thing? how many factories up north were closed to move them down there? the south has grown due to tax breaks and lack of unions. but the effects are abandoned towns and factories somewhere else. those companies didn't CREATE jobs, they just took them from somewhere else. the south grows while the north flounders.


And instead of looking to the South, and learning from its success, the urban (not rural) north and northeast just keeps on voting for more of the same old high taxes and unions that have put them in the death spiral and will surely lead to more abandoned towns and factories.

Amazing.

 

[XS650]

Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
Originally Posted By: ViragoBry
I've finally sworn them off after my 3rd and final 25-minute odyssey in an express lane. They won't be getting another dime of my money until their customer experience has been vastly improved.


That's not a corporate problem, that's a management problem at that store.
....


Widespread management problems are corporate problems.

A fish rots from the head.