Who's blaming slower sales on Obamacare now???

[racrguy]

So, stop handing out welfare benefits period. If you're working even part time, you can afford basics. It's not meant to be a lifestyle and career to be part time at Walmart, it's a stepping stone. The idiocy of soft bigotry.

Do you really want to go down this rabbit hole?

[Forever_frost]

Do you really want to go down this rabbit hole?

Already in the hole my man. If someone needs two jobs to stay off welfare, then work two fucking jobs. If I could do it at 20 while going to school fully time, anyone can but that means no smart phone, driving an older car and not going out to eat.

THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!

[Rreemo]

For anyone who has never heard of or had a read through the classic Vlasic pickles story, it's a pretty insightful tale of the classic Walmart business relationship, and the smoke & mirrors games they play with their vendors.....


Long Read BTW -

There is also no question that doing business with Wal-Mart can give a supplier a fast, heady jolt of sales and market share. But that fix can come with long-term consequences for the health of a brand and a business. Vlasic, for example, wasn't looking to build its brand on a gallon of whole pickles. Pickle companies make money on "the cut," slicing cucumbers into spears and hamburger chips. "Cucumbers in the jar, you don't make a whole lot of money there," says Steve Young, a former vice president of grocery marketing for pickles at Vlasic, who has since left the company.

At some point in the late 1990s, a Wal-Mart buyer saw Vlasic's gallon jar and started talking to Pat Hunn about it. Hunn, who has also since left Vlasic, was then head of Vlasic's Wal-Mart sales team, based in Dallas. The gallon intrigued the buyer. In sales tests, priced somewhere over $3, "the gallon sold like crazy," says Hunn, "surprising us all." The Wal-Mart buyer had a brainstorm: What would happen to the gallon if they offered it nationwide and got it below $3? Hunn was skeptical, but his job was to look for ways to sell pickles at Wal-Mart. Why not?
And so Vlasic's gallon jar of pickles went into every Wal-Mart, some 3,000 stores, at $2.97, a price so low that Vlasic and Wal-Mart were making only a penny or two on a jar, if that. It was showcased on big pallets near the front of stores. It was an abundance of abundance. "It was selling 80 jars a week, on average, in every store," says Young. Doesn't sound like much, until you do the math: That's 240,000 gallons of pickles, just in gallon jars, just at Wal-Mart, every week. Whole fields of cucumbers were heading out the door.

For Vlasic, the gallon jar of pickles became what might be called a devastating success. "Quickly, it started cannibalizing our non-Wal-Mart business," says Young. "We saw consumers who used to buy the spears and the chips in supermarkets buying the Wal-Mart gallons. They'd eat a quarter of a jar and throw the thing away when they got moldy. A family can't eat them fast enough."

The gallon jar reshaped Vlasic's pickle business: It chewed up the profit margin of the business with Wal-Mart, and of pickles generally. Procurement had to scramble to find enough pickles to fill the gallons, but the volume gave Vlasic strong sales numbers, strong growth numbers, and a powerful place in the world of pickles at Wal-Mart. Which accounted for 30% of Vlasic's business. But the company's profits from pickles had shriveled 25% or more, Young says--millions of dollars.

The gallon was hoisting Vlasic and hurting it at the same time.
Young remembers begging Wal-Mart for relief. "They said, 'No way,' " says Young. "We said we'll increase the price"--even $3.49 would have helped tremendously--"and they said, 'If you do that, all the other products of yours we buy, we'll stop buying.' It was a clear threat." Hunn recalls things a little differently, if just as ominously: "They said, 'We want the $2.97 gallon of pickles. If you don't do it, we'll see if someone else might.' I knew our competitors were saying to Wal-Mart, 'We'll do the $2.97 gallons if you give us your other business.' " Wal-Mart's business was so indispensable to Vlasic, and the gallon so central to the Wal-Mart relationship, that decisions about the future of the gallon were made at the CEO level.

Finally, Wal-Mart let Vlasic up for air. "The Wal-Mart guy's response was classic," Young recalls. "He said, 'Well, we've done to pickles what we did to orange juice. We've killed it. We can back off.' " Vlasic got to take it down to just over half a gallon of pickles, for $2.79. Not long after that, in January 2001, Vlasic filed for bankruptcy....

[46Tbird]

Sounds like their vendors salesmen are shitty at negotiation then. There's plenty of other wholesalers who will buy their products.

See above.

[juiceweezl]

See above.

Exactly. My company does business with big box stores. Last year, we had a 'shootout' with our biggest competitor to see who would get 100% of the business with a particular national chain. At the time, we had about 85-90% of the stores across the country. We weren't the lowest price and told them we wouldn't be. We gave them a good price, lower than we wanted but still at a point where we could make money AND they could too while still getting a superior product and service. They chose the other supplier and we went from a big chunk of business to no business with them. Instead, we focused efforts elsewhere, grew sales in all other areas, have easily surpassed last year's numbers and our forecast, and now that customer has asked us to reenter negotiations to see about adding our line again. Guess who will be dictating more price terms this go round?

[Tyrone Biggums]

For anyone who has never heard of or had a read through the classic Vlasic pickles story, it's a pretty insightful tale of the classic Walmart business relationship, and the smoke & mirrors games they play with their vendors.....

Bingo.

[talisman]

See above.

Yup. A lot of you guys I generally consider smart are making yourselves look foolish in this thread. WalMart is a pox on this country. Go watch WallE and think about what Buy'N'Large was representative of.

[ELVIS]

Yup. A lot of you guys I generally consider smart are making yourselves look foolish in this thread. WalMart is a pox on this country. Go watch WallE and think about what Buy'N'Large was representative of.

a lot (one) you guys I generally consider smart are making yourselves look foolish in this thread. "Go watch WallE" by basing your financial advice on a cartoon. DICK

god bless.

[Nash B.]

Wall-E was a true story, it just hasn't happened yet!

[Baron Von Crowder]

Exactly. My company does business with big box stores. Last year, we had a 'shootout' with our biggest competitor to see who would get 100% of the business with a particular national chain. At the time, we had about 85-90% of the stores across the country. We weren't the lowest price and told them we wouldn't be. We gave them a good price, lower than we wanted but still at a point where we could make money AND they could too while still getting a superior product and service. They chose the other supplier and we went from a big chunk of business to no business with them. Instead, we focused efforts elsewhere, grew sales in all other areas, have easily surpassed last year's numbers and our forecast, and now that customer has asked us to reenter negotiations to see about adding our line again. Guess who will be dictating more price terms this go round?

That's exactly the sentiment I heard from a family friend to who was selling to WallMart. They were making money, someone else came in to undercut them, so they let the others have it. They had the product then to stock shelves everywhere, and they raised up the wholesale price, and sold the hell out of it.

Then they hit jackpot, the other company couldnt supply what they promised, and Bentonville called back and they got to re-negotiate the cost, and is doing better than ever.

[Broncojohnny]

Yup. A lot of you guys I generally consider smart are making yourselves look foolish in this thread. WalMart is a pox on this country. Go watch WallE and think about what Buy'N'Large was representative of.

That vlasic story is interesting but you have to look at the whole picture. Is there an economic benefit to being able to buy things as cheaply as possible at Wal mart? Doesn't all that "saved money" go right down the street to a local restaurant or service based business? A lot of it does. To me tha vlasic story is one of mismanagement, they invited the snake in and it bit them. They are professionals and they knew what they were getting into. There are reasons why you don't see certain brands in Wal-mart.

[bcoop]

People aren't forced to work for Walmart any more than they are forced to work in fast food or retail period. Get some education, join the military, learn to dig ditches, drive a truck or whatever. There are plenty of jobs that don't involve wearing a blue vest and making minimum wage.

I agree. I get so tired of people whining about Wal Mart and how they treat employees. Nobody is forcing these poor poor workers to work there. Try having some ambition for a day, and do something with yourself. I don't care how they treat their employees. I also don't shop there.

That's it? Fuck that.

That's a lot of money to a lot of people. I wouldn't do it, but many would.

Exactly. My company does business with big box stores. Last year, we had a 'shootout' with our biggest competitor to see who would get 100% of the business with a particular national chain. At the time, we had about 85-90% of the stores across the country. We weren't the lowest price and told them we wouldn't be. We gave them a good price, lower than we wanted but still at a point where we could make money AND they could too while still getting a superior product and service. They chose the other supplier and we went from a big chunk of business to no business with them. Instead, we focused efforts elsewhere, grew sales in all other areas, have easily surpassed last year's numbers and our forecast, and now that customer has asked us to reenter negotiations to see about adding our line again. Guess who will be dictating more price terms this go round?

Ding ding ding. Any sales person worth their weight knows where their time is best spent and where the margins are. Big box type places flat out suck to do business with. I focus as little time and energy on those accounts as possible. They're never worth the headache that comes with the sale. They aren't worth the reduced margins. While true that 2% of something is better than 20% of nothing, I prefer to spend my time growing smaller accounts, while protecting margins. Beyond that, when you hitch your wagon to one horse, all it takes is one cross phone call or conversation, and poof, its gone. Diversify yo funds, ninja! I lose things all the time in the exact scenario above. They ALWAYS come crawling back. It's a given. And I always make it hurt the second time around. As someone else said, the Vlasic story was piss poor management on Vlasic's part. Greed took over and made them very shortsighted. Wal Mart isn't the only retailer or reseller that does this kind of shit. They ALL do it. Every single one of the big boxes do.

[Trip McNeely]

Exactly. These people act like Walmart is the only game in town. They maybe the biggest, but the biggest always cut your margins and focus on volume. I still stand by my original statement.

[Gasser64]

Ive worked there, they dont pay sh1t. So i dont work there anymore

[Broncojohnny]

I just don't see the benefit of paying 20% more for something when ultimately most of that money is going out of town. I'd rather save $20 on my grocery bill and take the savings to Baby Doll's crippled children's home and help out the local economy.

Besides, we own these fucking places! If you have 401k plan and are in a large cap mutual fund then you are most likely an owner of Wal mart! Fucking greedy sons of bitches!