Resistance is futile...

 

Raoul,

Whatcha smokin' over there? I want sum.

 

I was watching a study of Wal-Mart last week. I came across it, and don't remember what channel it was (I was waiting for my wife's right before we go out bathroom routine), but the show was fairly objective. They said that even though they were by far the largest in the world, they only had 10% of the retail market in the U.S.. That's still a big number when you consider how many retailers exist.

 

Yep, in a trillion dollar economy, 10% is huge.

But, looking at Wal-Mart's 258,000,000,000 (Notice the (000) on the header tab, indicates there are three zero's missing from the numbers you see); our retail economy must be over two trillion for Wally to only have 10% with numbers like that.

2,000,000,000,000.00 Buddy, that's a lot of zeros....

Quick math: The difference between being a Millionaire, and a Billionaire. You won the lottery and you now have 3,000,000 dollars. But, you spend one dollar every second of every day. How long will your money last? Approximately 34 and 1/2 days....

Bill Gates has more Billions than he knows what to do with, so- he gives you three Billion dollars. How long will that last if you spent one dollar every second of every day? 95 YEARS, and one month!

In today's lotto/huge sports contract world, big numbers are easy to lose when considering scale. So, as you can see, a Million bucks, while plenty for most of us, is really s**t, compared to a Billionaire....

 

Wally World (aka The Store) isn't the only one booming right now. Walgreen's have been poping up every where around here too. I've watched them go in to 2 communities so far and starting to buid in my town. This will make three medium size towns this year here. Every time one goes in Wal-Mart gets nervous and the closest Wally store starts a price war before Walgreens has erected thier first wall.
Unfortunatly Walgreens bought 2 adjoining lots one of which held this towns very first new car dealer "Ford" at that (long before I was born). It has always been known as the old Ford Building for as long as I've been alive, yet they tore it down. Many other business had been in there but it was still historic as the Ford Building, I can't belive the Chamber of Commerece or the Historic Society let that happen. But on the plus side Walgreens now has a better location than Wally World!

 

If Wal-Mart is lowering prices every day why isn't anything free yet?

 

Because for every one item they lower the price on then they raise the price of 3 others!


I guess maybe they forgot to advertise that part... maybe it's in small print somewhere...

 

Don't be trying to confuse me with facts and numbers and crap like that!

 

What many people don't realize is that alot of the products sold to wal mart are made specifically for wal mart. Yes, watered-down. Always low prices.

 

 

There's always a better mousetrap being built somewhere. IBM, Sears, GM. All were at the top of their game but seem to stagnate after experiencing success. I'm having problem imagining who will beat Wal-Mart, but the K-Mart/Sears alliance has promise.

Personally I think brick-and-mortar shopping will eventually go away completely and wal-mart is just part of the grand finale.

-Fatz

 

The internet will never replace brick & mortar for one simple reason...

Impatience.

If Malibu has what I'm looking for in stock today. I'm not going to go on the website, purchase it, and have it shipped to me over what may take another week or two.

Internet shopping is here to stay, simply because sometimes you get good deals on the net that you can't get in the store; but, not so good that the stores are no longer needed or convenient.

It may take off in rural areas, where one is 100-200 miles away from the nearest, Best Buy, Malibu, Circuit City, Fry's, etc.. and doesn't feel like driving that far, but in the city- not-gonna-happen.

 

If they perfect teletransportation other than H2O.. then we could see the end of Brick and Morter. But that's probably another 100 years or more. then another 50 before we would see it at a civilian level. For the time being building distributers are safe. But even then if we can trasport humans then you could "beam" to the store see and inspect the item, then beam back home with it in hand. So brick and morter may still live on even then.

 

Just an example of why Brick & Mortar won't die anytime soon...


www.groceryworks.com

www.homegrocer.com

Anybody remember those from circa 1999? That was the new way to shop.
I haven't seen either truck in my neighborhood, or anywhere in nearly 5 years...

 

There is a delivery vehicle at the Albertsons across the street I see in operation all the time