This is so subjective as I don't really know what KMart and Target do or don't do for their employees. Is there any retail outlet left to go to that is, for instance, carrying products mostly from China? Being in the business, I know their light bulbs suck. My last coffeemaker was Made in China and I bought it at Target online for a really low price. The quality is fine and Consumer Report rated it a Best Buy.
Hate to disillusion those who think Wal-Mart always has the lowest prices. If you check their regular price, you will see it is much higher than many other online sources and Target. If you check when they begin lowering a price it is often because the item is not selling as well. Couldn't be quality perhaps? By the time they lower a price it is in the average range of their competitiors. I've seldom found they have the lowest price. Target comes in much lower on new releases of DVD's and they actually have enough stock. Wal-Mart holds back stock and let's the initial discount sell out and then reintroduces it into stores at a price not any different than any other price. The astonishing thing is that Sam's initial price is often higher than the limited week of Wal-Mart's but when you go to the store, Wal-Mart is out of stock. Good way to get one into the store!
Not only is Costco (which is also a Chinese manufacturer's dream come true) more fun to shop at and has higher quality goods, it treats its employees better and makes better profits.
Business Week Online
Quote:Surprisingly, however, Costco's high-wage approach actually beats Wal-Mart at its own game on many measures. BusinessWeek ran through the numbers from each company to compare Costco and Sam's Club, the Wal-Mart warehouse unit that competes directly with Costco. We found that by compensating employees generously to motivate and retain good workers, one-fifth of whom are unionized, Costco gets lower turnover and higher productivity. Combined with a smart business strategy that sells a mix of higher-margin products to more affluent customers, Costco actually keeps its labor costs lower than Wal-Mart's as a percentage of sales, and its 68,000 hourly workers in the U.S. sell more per square foot. Put another way, the 102,000 Sam's employees in the U.S. generated some $35 billion in sales last year, while Costco did $34 billion with one-third fewer employees.
At most, 5-10% of Targets prices may be lower than Walmarts. There is NO WAY Target can compete in the market with Walmart as far as pricing goes. Besides, Walmart will price match pretty much everyone.
Costco is far better than Sam's in many ways and I'd rather go there although it is a lot further from my house. Baloney that Target cannot compete. Just bought a coffeemaker from them that was 20% cheaper than WalMart and that's their regular price.
BTW, WalMart also has name brands but they are made at the quality WalMart dictates. Target does not do this.
Lightwizard wrote:BTW, WalMart also has name brands but they are made at the quality WalMart dictates. Target does not do this.
So, Coke has 2 production lines? One for Walmart and one for everyone else? What about Purdue? Do they have different chickens? Does Bounty use different pulp for their paper towels? Do the CD makers use different plastic molding their CD's? Does Goodyear use a different rubber or process of vulcanization ( I just wanted to say vulcanization...)? How about Rubber maid, do they use different plastic?
I shop at both Target and Walmart. I can appreciate the differences, believe me, but Walmart is not as big as it is for no reason...
It's sales marketing promotion -- there's a sucker born every minute. WalMart is still like a I said before a zoo -- unless you want to spend hours shopping. It is way to time consuming to fight the crowds and the size of their stores just to buy one time. Target is much better for quickly locating and buying a quality product. WalMart is organized by some twisted sadist. I do shop in their nursery but only because there is a Lowe's next door also with an extensive nursery. For quality though I prefer a single owner small nursery which is twenty minutes father and they also do landscaping which has been in the OC for many years. At least I know their plants will not likely croak. Can't be guaranteed that with WalMart or Target.
Walmart has closed down Targets all over Houston. There is only one Costco to a good 20 Walmarts. Plus Kmart has already been kicked to the curb and so has Albertsons.
A link? I don't really believe all the Targets have closed down in Houston. It has had virtually no effect in Southern California -- there are still Target and Mervyn's stores surrounding my area.
Costco is never going to try to market due to shear numbers -- their prices are still lower than WalMart on particular items they stock and WalMart has no quality food section. Come now, would you buy a steak at WalMart?
I'm a hypocrite. I don't like the way Wal-Mart is closing shops around here but I'll shop there for low prices ...at 3 a.m. my favorite time to shop. They always have plenty of people working and they're more helpful than at other stores. I go to Target when I want a little more quality but don't see them getting hurt in this neck. Up in Gainesville the city commissioners vetoed a super Wal-Mart but only for not fitting into the comprehensive growth plan. I'm sure Wal-Mart will build somewhere in town.
There are 7 WalMarts in the Houston area and with Marshall Fields, Mervyns and Target (all one company), there are 6 stores in the Houston Area. There's no doubt that WalMart is bigger than Target alone but my experience, for instance, of online ordering from Target/Amazon, Target beats out WalMart on products almost every time. In small appliances, if you think you are getting the same thing with a brand name, look again. They are made cheaply for WalMart to their low quality specs but look like the regular models. On comparable models that they will sometimes stock, the are as high or higher.
Marshall Fields, I don't suppose you are kidding. No, you're not. In my childhood, the store took up a Chicago city block, or thereabouts. As we left Chicago, when I turned thirteen, they had a new store at something that was called a MALL. Oak Park, I think it was. The original store was iconic, surely to me.
How can that name be mixed with wallmart? Ack.
Marshall Fields is owned by Target as well as Mervyns. They're generally clustered in the same mall.
wait a min wiz. You mean that small appliances suchh as a brand name toaster would be made in 2 grades? and that Walmart has a ceaper spec model? I never knew that.
Yes, in many cases the appliance that looks alike is actually made with downgraded specs in a foreign plant which has much cheaper labor and much lower quality control. You can tell my the model number as some of the digits resemble the standard model but are different. This is true of many other their other products sold. In my field, I wouldn't buy a light bulb from them for any reason -- it's cheap junk made in gawd knows where, doesn't really meet the national specifications and has half the lamp life listed on the package.
Lightwizard wrote:Yes, in many cases the appliance that looks alike is actually made with downgraded specs in a foreign plant which has much cheaper labor and much lower quality control.
Given economies of scale in manufacturing such appliances, I am skeptical of this claim. Perhaps you could cite a source for it?
Wal-Mart is famous for providing a different level of similar looking product. Most famously (?), as I recall, is Levis and Penmans clothing.
A number of manufacturers do the same thing for their own outlet stores.
