Wal-Mart starts $1 program

[OhioChick]

Source: Reuters

15 May 2009, 0211 hrs IST, REUTERS

SAN FRANCISCO: Wal-Mart Stores Inc is offering aisles filled with merchandise priced at $1 and taking other steps to boost sales in its second quarter, an executive said in an interview on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, the world's largest retailer reported a flat first-quarter profit. In its current second quarter, it now faces tough comparisons with a year ago, when its results were boosted by customers spending tax rebate cash in its stores.

Treasurer Charles Holley said Wal-Mart has planned a number of merchandising initiatives to appeal to cash-strapped shoppers, including its dollar program.

"If you go down the aisles, you'll see an aisle where everything is $1, and we'll be doing more things like that throughout the next couple of months," he said.



Read more: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/International-Business/Wal-Mart-starts-1-program/articleshow/4532034.cms

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Cheap, poisonous Chinese shit now to cost a buck. :eyes:

[DJ13]

1. So they're finally so desperate the only way to boost sales is

.... to go after the dollar store sales?

Thats not a good sign.

[saigon68]

31. Dollar stores are supported by WalMart employees

That's one of the few places where they can afford to shop.

[Tektonik]

2. This is just copying Target

[TwixVoy]

10. Target has a dollar spot

which is a little confined area of cheap crap.

This sounds more extensive... as in you will have aisles scattered all around the store with $1 product.

[Name removed]

32. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[No Elephants]

39. Hey! I got my best cotton baseball style cap ever in that $1 section. Neat memo pads, too.

[durablend]

22. Yep--they're playing catch up these days

Before they were supposedly on the cutting edge of trends, now they seem to be copying Target. Even the newer non-Supercenter prototype is a near copy of Target's store layout.

[JI7]

38. half the stuff there is actually 2.50 also

[imdjh]

3. Great, now they want to kill the dollar stores too

Not that the Dollar Stores or Dollar Tree are pillars of the community or champions of labor, just that it seems that Walmart would like to kill everyone else.

[femmocrat]

8. Our local Dollar Tree always has items for various charities.

They ask at the checkout if you want to donate an item to a homeless shelter, the troops, etc.

I always do. It's Dollar Tree stuff, but sometimes their stuff is serviceable.

[WCGreen]

18. The Dollar stores are often the only place for people to get jobs

in inner city neighborhoods. They are willing to invest in these neighborhoods while almost all of the other chain stores avoid these areas like the plague.

[customerserviceguy]

25. And let's face it

dollar stores have some reasonable alternatives for people who would get gouged at regular stores. I'm lucky enough to afford a couple of twenty-five pound bags of rice when they go on sale at the supermarket, and store them in an airtight container, but if I only had a buck to buy a small two pound package, the dollar store would be my only alternative to paying a couple of bucks or so for it.

[imdjh]

26. I love those huge sacks of rice that I see Vietnamese people buy at the Vietnamese grocer

There is something about that 25 pound bag of rice that I find incredibly wholesome, that I just don't get from the 3lb bag of Rico rice. On the other hand, Rico rice is grown in the United States and costs less per pound.

Anyway, buying rice in 25 pound bags doesn't seem to make sense for someone who buys 3 lbs a month, maybe.

At $1.79 for 3 pounds, the Rico rice is also cheaper than the 25 pound bags of Thai rice at $18-$22.

[customerserviceguy]

30. Go to any instore bakery

and ask for some of the five-gallon buckets they get shortening or icing in, they have very tight fitting lids. They're food-grade safe, and will keep rice, pasta, flour, or just about anything that you get a fat discount on for buying in bulk for a long time. My lady has a Costco membership she shares with her sister, and there's one about a quarter mile from our condo, so it makes sense to buy the bulk goods they have available there.

[rvablue]

21. This was my first thought, too. n/t

[Skink]

4. Personal spending is way down.

Walmarts evil plan has finally materialized.

[izquierdista]

5. Oh, my bad

From the headline, I thought it was going to be about the workers' hourly wage.

[southerncrone]

6. Poor pitiful Wal-Mart.

Cheap, poisonous Chinese shit now to cost a buck.

Wal-Mart was the KINGPIN of importing the cheap, poisonous China shit. Just like the Repukes, they promoted just the opposite of what they were actually doing. Some here might remember their MASSIVE "Buy American" campaign of the '80's. While at the same time they were negotiating w/Chinese companies to make their next round of goods (using child labor under despicable conditions) that they used to completely undercut the other retailers in the US. Result.....other retailers had to follow suit to stay competitive w/Wal-Mart. Couple this w/NAFTA & "free trade" agreements & "POOF" there goes our manufacturing base. And Wal-Mart becomes "the company store of America".

I hate them.

[bluestateguy]

7. I haven't shopped there in 7 years

I actually drive farther every day to shop at a real grocery store, rather than the Wal-Mart Supercenter that is closer to me.

[PADemD]

9. Two dollar stores within 1 mile of my house. Walmart 8+ miles away.

Guess I'll go to the dollar stores.

[Mari333]

11. heh. the wal mart here in town revamped the whole store

trying to look upscale. its still the same old shit on the shelves, albeit new shelves.
and they dumped their fabric and yarn section..which, in this small town, where ladies still sew and knit, pissed a lot of the customers off.
cheap crap.

[Lars39]

14. What was with that decision to dump the fabric anyway?

That has got to be the stupidest thing I have seen them do in a while. And the nearest fabric store is 40 miles away. Crazy.

[jennied]

12. I wonder if the 1 dollar isle will accept coupons :P

I know people hate Wal Mart, but its the best deal around when it comes to some things.

[Old Coot]

20. In Walmart didn't exist, we would have to pay 30 to 40% more. nt

[Touchdown]

24. Sources? Proof? Coherent argument?

:shrug:

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

27. Ditto on what Touchdown said... where's your data?

Sources? Proof? Coherent argument?

[OhioChick]

28. If Walmart didn't exist.....more people would have jobs. n/t

[brentspeak]

29. We're waiting for you to prove your assertion (n/t)

[tomm2thumbs]

13. fried mayonaise balls for $1.00? I can feel my blood thickening already

[LaPera]

15. Out to put the Dollar Stores out of Biz...nothing new, Wal-Mart always done this.

[mitchum]

16. The Waltons should take a ride in some American made tumbrils

[Autumn Colors]

17. Makes no damned difference to me

I've never set foot in a Wal-Mart and never will. I don't care if they start giving stuff away free.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

19. They want to survive

And they don't give a damn who they kill in order to do it.

[Deja Q]

34. They, contrary to those posters they grin about, are anti-society.

Do they deserve to survive? Especially when they killed competitors, which means no more jobs for people to spend money AT walmart... with luck WM will go down before everything else does.

Enough predators. We are NOT animals.

[slay]

23. Fuck Wal-Mart

All the small businesses they put out of business.. their low wages.. all their CRAP from China.. being EXTREMELY anti-labor.. and tons of other reasons various documentaries have stated better than I can.

[DU GrovelBot]

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[underpants]

35. I go to the Dollar Tree store all the time

yeah yeah I know they are made in horrible conditions and all that but hell I have a 3 year old girl-and they have $1 mylar balloons!!

[gorfle]

36. They chased the bottom too long.

They are now at the bottom of the barrel. I don't shop at Walmart anymore except to buy ammo. Not because of any real ideological problem with them, but rather because they pushed their suppliers to lower their prices so low that now all they sell is junk. I gave up trying to buy belts there for my pants because the tongue rips through the "leather" in less than a week, and it cracks open against the buckle. So now I go to a real men's store and pay $50 but the belt lasts for years. I buy my shirts from L.L. Bean as they are $30 but again last for years as opposed to the junk I used to buy at Walmart that wouldn't make it a year.

Walmart's real problem now is that they are perceived as selling junk. Adding a dollar isle will only increase that perception.

[TooRaLoo]

37. Wal-Mart merch is JUNK

and so is most of the stuff that costs $1 in the Dollar aisle. It's not going to attract me to come buy their crap. I barely make enough to get by but I prefer to spend my money on things that last.