Like Best Buy and hate Wal-mart? Can we say Oxymoron? -- Adilbrand Noblesword's Hall of Warriors

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Date Posted: 01:38:41 10/05/03 Sun
Author: Mt. Healthy Mountaineer
Subject: Like Best Buy and hate Wal-mart? Can we say Oxymoron?
In reply to: Tomodachi 's message, "Re: Wal-Mart is......" on 00:04:45 10/05/03 Sun

To add a bit to the excellent points made by Tomodachi...

I do not fear the big blue smiley-faced menace that is known as Wal-mart, for two reasons:

1. Adilbrand's post mentioned the fear of Monopoly. A false fear in most environments. Take Columbus, for instance. Target has sensed the anti-Wal-mart sentiment and the near-monopolistic conditions and is building a Super-Target on top of the carcass of the Hills store that Wal-Mart killed off.

In a capitalistic system, monopolies are unnatural - the inflated prices and poor service created by a monopoly invite competition.

But wait - what about stores in the small towns of America? Yes - they are going to be serviced by just a WalMart since Target won't move in and K-Mart is unlikely to be expanding for a while - but that is the way it has always been. And Walmart will still get competition from the grocery stores - such as Kroger - the countries largest grocery chain. There's a Kroger's in just about every town over 10,000 people in the midwest.

2. Best Buy as an acceptable alternative...

Best Buy is to the electronics industry what Walmart is to the grocery and department store industry. They destroy local computer companies with lower prices. They manipulate suppliers for lower prices on extra hardware and supplies. They've done a far more effective job of destroying the local record stores than Wal-Mart has because Wal-Mart won't carry the albums with explicit lyrics.

If you hate Wal-Mart for doing what they do but happily shop at Kroger's, Menard's, Lowe's, Kohls, Target, K-Mart, Shell, Mobil, Exxon, McDonalds, Burger King, General Motors, Toyota, Dell, IBM, Taco Bell, Home Depot, Meijer, Speedway, Amazon.com, Arby's, Old Navy, Sears, Sam Goody, Waldenbooks, Foot Locker, JC Penneys, Pizza Hut, etc., you are fooling yourself.

...and to tie both points together with a personal story...

I bought my printer at Best Buy and I was really quite pleased with the price - no complaints there. However, the ink was killing me (as is normal). I was feeling screwed by some kind of monopoly since they had the best price (by a few cents) for my Canon ink, and it was not a good price. But, guess what? Target started carrying my ink and undercut them by about 35%. Monopolies create a vacuum that begs to be filled. It's all worked out on the old dependable supply and demand chart.

Other points to consider:

From about 1975-1985, K-mart was the world's largest store - they were in every market - they were kickin' ass. Now look at them. Bankruptcy court & closing dozens of stores.

From about 1920 - 1975 Sears was the world's largest store -they even started a monster radio station in Chicago called WLS (initials standing for World's Largest Store) that beamed their corporate image all over the midwest. They dominated the catalog market to the point that they were the industry standard for decades. Where's Sears now? Are they scaring anybody?

How about the Hudson Bay Company?

The East India Tea Company?

My point is that things change - The whole world will not be Wal-Mart. Everyone thought the whole world was going to be McDonald's and for the last 5 years that company has been bleeding out money.

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