Doug Kanter wrote:

"RJ" wrote in message
...
Doug Kanter wrote:

"Dave Thompson" wrote in message
news:nKOxb.8111$ZE1.2358@fed1read04...

It's truly very simple. If the customer wants the 413 gram box, they
drive
past Wally World and show up at Loblaw's. WAIT! Hasn't that
mega-chain
run
Mom and Pop grocers out of business?

Uh....yeah. thirty or forty years ago.

Notice a pattern here?

Maybe a repeat performance, but a pattern would require the same reasons and
those reasons are NOT the same.

Your reasons below are inaccurate because you interpreted my comments as
being only about supermarket competition. My point was that WalMart
grew as big as it is because it satisfied shoppers. When a better or
more interesting concept comes along, it will grow at the expense of
WalMart.

How could you imagine in the 1970s that WalMart could ever hope to grow
to compete with Sears, KMart and the like? Yet they did, and somebody
will supplant them in turn.

1) The mom & pop store of the 1940s wasn't much bigger than the convenience
store of today. Perhaps 3000-4000 square feet. You still find IGA and Red &
White stores that size in small towns, but there's no way they can carry the
variety of large supermarket chains. The newer, larger stores actually
offered something worthwhile to differentiate themselves. A Wal Mart store
does not, unless there was no modern supermarket in the area before they
arrived.

Wal-Mart is blamed for the demise of the 'little stores on Main Street'.

2) For a number of reasons, including but not limited to the acceptance of
immigrant cultures, and increased overseas travel, the American consumer
expects to see a huge assortment of foods which used to be considered ethnic
specialties.

The concept was invented first, and people liked it. Thus they got more
of it.

If you really think about it, Wal Mart serves NO special function as a
grocery supplier, unless you're still under their advertising spell and you
think your groceries cost less there. They have no more leverage, and often
less than the 20 largest grocery chains & wholesalers.

Then they're not a major competitor. What are you worried about?

By the way, I rarely shop at WalMart for anything any more. It used to
be a very well run enterprise but has fallen far since Sam Walton died.