...Wal-Mart’s Promotion Mix and Integrated Marketing Communications Wal-Mart is a top ranked company with high financial performance. The giant is a none other-than a retailer of general and consumable goods. They are an envied company that seem to do everything right. As a company, they position themselves to address the needs of customers by operating retail stores around the world focusing saving people money so people so can have additional financial resources for other things. Combined efforts in Advertising, Direct marketing, internet marketing, sales promotion public relations and personal selling investigated to learn about their success. Wal-Mart operation is broken in three areas Wal-Mart US, Wal-Mart International and Wal-Mart international they also have Wal-Mart.com to shop and use free shipping. “The Wal-Mart International segment consists of the company’s operations outside of the United States and Puerto-Rico. The Sam’s club segments include warehouse membership clubs in the United States and Puerto Rico as well as Sam’s Club.com” (Arkansas, 2011). Wal-Mart international net sales, US sales and Sam’s sales were $109 billion, $260 billion $49 billion respectively for fiscal year 2011; Wal-Mart plan on growing stronger by opening new stores and selling more items. Wal-Mart is currently No 1. On the fortune, 500 companies; in 2010, sales were $ 422 billion, and they increase profits during the recession competing retailers struggling. Wal-Mart provides awareness...
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...“The Wal-mart effect” Written by: William S. Kowinski Business journalist Charles Fishman begins his book with a disarming story of how Wal-Mart produced an environmental benefit when the company decided that paperboard boxes around cans of deodorant were unnecessary. So they disappeared -- not only from Wal-Mart but from everywhere -- thereby saving many trees. But the reason Wal-Mart did this, and the reason everyone else followed, he argues, are also the key factors in a new kind and extent of destruction. These factors cause the various manifestations of the Wal-Mart effect, which is the subject of Fishman's book. The first factor is the company's single operating principle, administered absolutely, without exception: always low prices. It is not only Wal-Mart's slogan but also its one commandment, its ultimate morality, trumping all other considerations. The second factor is Wal-Mart's unprecedented size. "For most of this decade, Wal-Mart has been both the largest company in the world, and the largest company in the history of the world," Fishman writes. It still would be in 2006 except that the doubling of oil prices places Exxon-Mobil in the top spot. But Wal-Mart is still America's largest private employer -- as well as the world's. And its stated goal is to be twice its current size by 2010. Ninety percent of Americans live within 15 miles of a Wal-Mart, and 93 percent of U.S. households shop at one at least once a year. Fishman concludes: "Wal-Mart reshapes...
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...A summary of Wal-Mart’s financial performance in fiscal year 2008 can be found in Wal-Mart’s 2008 Annual Report, which is available on walmartstores.com. Wal-Mart’s fiscal year 2008 ended on January 31, 2008. Unless otherwise stated, references to years in this report relate to fiscal years, rather than to calendar years. Key highlights from the Annual Report are discussed below. Item 1. Revenue Recognition Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. reported record sales for fiscal year 2008. During this period, total net sales (sales net of sales taxes and estimated sales returns) were $374,526 million, which represents an increase of 8.6 percent over the previous fiscal year. Wal-Mart recognizes sales revenue at the time the merchandise is sold to the customers. Two exceptions to this are layaway transactions and gift card purchases. Sales revenue from layaway transactions is recognized when the item is fully paid for and the customer has the item in his/her possession. Sales revenue from gift card purchases is recognized when the card is redeemed. In addition to sales revenue, Wal-Mart also recognized $1,038 million in Sam’s Club membership fees in fiscal year 2008. Sam’s Club membership fee revenue is recognized over the term of the membership. Membership fees that are not recognized are recorded as deferred membership fee revenue (unearned revenue) and are rolled over until the following fiscal year. Item 2. Income Trends for 2004 to 2008 In order to get a better...
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...advantages, the effects of globalization, and a benchmarking analysis of Wal-mart in comparison with comparable organizations in their industry segments using United States companies. Competitors in the supercenter market are Target and Meijer, whereas Costco is a key competitor in the member warehouse-style market. Only Costco (Costco Annual Report, 2011) is currently competing in the international marketplace. Financial Health Wal-Mart Stores Incorporated (WMT), Target Corporation (TGT), and Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) are public held companies with stock traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and required to file an Annual Report on forms 10-K annually with the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) (Stock Quotes, 2012). Meijer’s is a family-owned private company and not subject to SEC filings of their performance and is excluded from analysis because their financial data is not available (At 75, Meijer family still controls retailers destiny, 2009). Income Statement The latest income statements submitted by Wal-Mart, Target, and Costco to the Security and Exchange commission all reported millions in profit (Stock Quotes, 2012). Wal-Mart’s consolidated net income for its fiscal year ending January 31, 2012 is $15,699 million (Walmart Annual Report, 2012), which equates to a $4.54 net per share income, and resulted in $1.46 paid in dividends for each common share (Walmart Annual Report, 2012) ). By comparison, Costco latest annual report for fiscal...
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...Wal-Mart Crushing Mom and Pop Shops Mary Ritter English 122: English Composition II Lauren Higgins July 8, 2013 Wal-Mart Crushing Mom and Pop Shops That one of the paper’s opening quotes is actually from a pro-Wal-Mart article, which goes on to discuss the merits and efficiency enhancements that result, claiming that “in a free market, large suppliers of nearly everything will drive most small suppliers out of business.” Wal-Mart watch, one of the largest Anti-Wal-Mart organizations, features an academic article claiming that in Iowa, Wal-Mart’s expansion has been responsible for widespread closings of ‘mom and pop’ stores, including 555 grocery stores, 298 hardware stores, 293 building suppliers,161 variety shops, 158 women’s stores, and 116 pharmacies. Perhaps because of its size and success, unlike most other firms, Wal-Mart’s ability to open new stores is decided within the political process. State and local economic development authorities, and state courts, in most cases make the final decisions on whether to allow the entry of a specific new Wal-Mart store. These decisions are often influenced by arguments about the harm done to small businesses. For example, in her comments to a local reporter surrounding the city commission’s vote on allowing a new Wal-Mart store, Aberdeen, South Dakota city commissioner Pat Klabo stated “If this were a moral decision, we would have voted right away in favor of the...
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...The Evolving Food Chain: Competitive Effects of Wal-Mart’s Entry into the Supermarket Industry∗ Emek Basker University of Missouri Michael Noel University of California–San Diego September 2008 Abstract We analyze the effect of Wal-Mart’s entry into the grocery market using a unique store-level price panel data set. We use OLS and two IV specifications to estimate the effect of Wal-Mart’s entry on competitors’ prices of 24 grocery items across several categories. Wal-Mart’s price advantage over competitors for these products averages approximately 10%. On average, competitors’ response to entry by a Wal-Mart Supercenter is a price reduction of 1–1.2%, mostly due to smaller-scale competitors; the response of the “Big Three” supermarket chains (Albertson’s, Safeway, and Kroger) is less than half that size. Low-end grocery stores, which compete more directly with Wal-Mart, cut their prices more than twice as much as higher-end stores. We confirm our results using a falsification exercise, in which we test for Wal-Mart’s effect on prices of services that it does not provide, such as movie tickets and dry cleaning services. JEL Codes: L11, L13, L81 Keywords: Wal-Mart, Retail Prices, Supermarkets, Price Competition ∗ Contact: emek@missouri.edu or mdnoel@ucsd.edu. We thank Saku Aura, Roger Betancourt, Paul Dobson, Luke Froeb, Jerry Hausman, G¨nter Hitcsh, Ephraim Leibtag, Saul Lach, Daniel Levy, Ye¸im u s Orhun, David Parsley, the editor and two anonymous referees...
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...3—Summer 2007—Pages 177–198 The Causes and Consequences of Wal-Mart’s Growth Emek Basker W al-Mart plays a large and ever-growing role in the U.S. economy. As of January 31, 2007, Wal-Mart operated more than 3,400 U.S. Wal-Mart stores along with more than 550 Sam’s Club locations. Wal-Mart is the largest private employer in the United States, with 1.3 million employees, and the largest retailer in the United States. In 2004, Wal-Mart handled 6.5 percent of U.S. retail sales (8.8 percent if automobile sales are excluded); this number has since increased. Wal-Mart is the top U.S. seller of apparel, groceries, and music, among other products, and is the top retailer in most states. Wal-Mart’s 2005 revenues exceeded those of the next five U.S. retailers combined; these are Home Depot, Kroger, Sears Holding Company (which includes Sears and Kmart), Costco, and Target (Schultz, 2006). Wal-Mart currently accounts for 28 percent of Playtex’s sales, 25 percent of Clorox’s, 21 percent of Revlon’s, 13 percent of KimberlyClark’s, and 17 percent of Kellogg’s (Weinswig and Tang, 2006). Wal-Mart also accounts for over 15 percent of U.S. imports of consumer goods from China. More than 120 million U.S. consumers shop at Wal-Mart every week, and 84 percent of Americans shopped at Wal-Mart at least once during 2005 (Pew Research Center, 2005).1 Wal-Mart is also the largest retailer in the world. From a global perspective, Wal-Mart’s sales are larger than the next three retailers combined:...
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...officials," a Bharti Walmart Spokesperson said in a statement. BSE () Vol: shares traded NSE () Vol: shares traded Prices|Financials|Company Info|Reports NEW DELHI: Bharti Walmart, the Indian arm of the US retail giant Walmart, on Wednesday said the allegation that routine US lobbying disclosures reflects improper conduct on its part in India are false. "This disclosure has nothing to do with political or governmental contacts with Indian Government officials," a Bharti Walmart Spokesperson said in a statement. The disclosures to US regulators showed that company's business interests in India was discussed with American officials along with 50 or more other topics during a three month period, it added "The allegation that a routine U S lobbying disclosure reflects improper conduct on our part in India, is false, it said. Under the US law, on a quarterly basis, all companies which meet certain time and expenses thresholds, are required to disclose issues and expenditure incurred in connection with contacts with the United States Government, including staffing cost, association dues, and payments to consultants, it said. The company said all organisations which expend more than USD 11,500 annually on lobbying activities and employ at least one lobbyist must register and file the quarterly reports. In the third quarter of 2012, lobbyists and companies filed thousands of forms, it said. As per a Washington DC publication, Roll Call, in the first...
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...Analyzing Wal-Mart's annual report provides a positive outlook on Wal-Mart's financial health. Given the specific ratios and its comparison to other companies in the same industry, Wal-Mart is dominating the retail industry. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. operates retail stores in various formats around the world and is committed quality merchandise and saving people money with everyday low prices (EDLP) for better living. EDLP is a pricing philosophy under which Wal-Mart price items at a low price every day so that their customers trust that prices will not change under frequent promotional activity (Wal-mart 2010 financial review, 2010). Wal-Mart also encourages a culture that rewards and embraces mutual respect, integrity and diversity. The review of the current ratio, quick ratio, inventory turnover ratio, debt ratio, net profit margin ratio, ROI, ROE, and P/E ratio all indicate an upbeat future for the company. The current ratio, which is defined as current assets divided by current liabilities, is a measure of how much liabilities a company has compared to its assets (Ross, Westerfield, & Jordan, 2008). Wal-Mart in the year of 2009 had a current ratio of .90, and as of January 2010 it had a current ratio of .87 (Wal-mart 2010 financial review, 2010). The quick ratio, which is defined as current assets minus inventory divided by current liabilities, is a measure of a company's ability pay short term obligations (Ross, Westerfield, & Jordan, 2008). Wal-Mart in the year of...
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...in 1962, Wal-Mart has grown to be the largest corporation in the world. Wal-Mart is revolutionizing the way the retail items are passed from producer to end-user by drastically cutting costs at every opportunity and demanding the same of their suppliers. These savings passed onto the consumers has not come without a price! Where some see a discount or a job opportunity, others see an empire that pulls the rug out of existing businesses. For years, Wal-Mart has been accused of a number of criminal actions and questionable ethical practices. Many people, from all walks of life, find themselves discussing (and some even arguing) the topic: “Is Wal-Mart good for America?” Many blame this modern trend of globalism, the outsourcing of manufacturing, the closing of mom & pop stores and independent grocers on Wal-Mart. But the question that must be asked is as follows: Is Wal-Mart really to blame for all the things that they are being accused of? After all, aren’t the consumers fueling Wal-Mart’s position as the number one retailer in the world by their constant search for the lowest possible price? And don’t we have a choice as to where we should shop and isn’t it our responsibility to avoid businesses that we deem are unethical? Is Wal-Mart unethical or are they just misunderstood? Background Wal-Mart has been forced to defend itself against several lawsuits that were filed against them. In the case; Cynthia Haddad vs. Wal-Mart stores, Inc. Wal-Mart was found...
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...Workplace,Business & Ethics on evaluation of job ethical standards in Wal-Mart in South Carolina In Partial Fulfillment of Business Research and Project BUS 499 Nagliesha L Miles Supervisor: Dr. Mmutakaego Chukwuanu Allen University Date: December 8,2010 Table of content Table of Content...............................................................................................................2 Abstract............................................................................................................................3 List of Illustrations Wal-Mart earnings preview......................................................................................13 U.S Retail food pricing.................................................................................14 Chapter 1 Introduction.....................................................................................................................5 Background information.......................................................................................5 Statement of problem............................................................................................5 Hypothesis............................................................................................................6 Chapter 2 Literature Review...........................................................................................................8 Chapter 3 Methodology.................................................
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...Wal-Mart and the U.S. Economy Dr. Robert Jantzen Professor of Economics Iona College Dr. Donn Pescatrice Professor of Economics Iona College Dr. Andrew Braunstein Professor of Business Economics Hagan School of Business Iona College Corresponding Author: Dr. Donn Pescatrice Iona College Department of Economics 715 North Avenue New Rochelle, NY 10801 (914)-637-2729 (dpescatrice@iona.edu) March, 2008 Wal-Mart and the U.S. Economy ABSTRACT The Wal-Mart company, the world’s largest retailer and second-largest corporation, is a dominant U.S. business. This study investigates whether there are significant long-run relationships between the business of Wal-Mart and the overall U.S. economy as measured by an array of traditional macro-level variables. Cointegration analysis reveals that Wal-Mart sales generally move counter to overall economic conditions, dampened in more prosperous economic periods and buoyed in more sluggish economic environments. Consequently, trends in Wal-Mart sales may serve as a rather non-traditional contrarian economic bellwether. Keywords Wal-Mart . macroeconomy . cointegration . bellwether JEL Classifications E32 . L81 . M21 WAL-MART AND THE U.S. ECONOMY Introduction The Wal-Mart corporation has come under media scrutiny for a myriad of reasons in recent years. It continues to be the focus...
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...sustainability and humanitarian efforts. CSR has evolved from companies donating corporate dollars to global non-profits, to sending employees into emerging geographical places to work directly with its initiatives partnering organizations. Wal-mart stores Inc., operates retail stores in various formats under various banners. It’s operations comprise of three reportable business segments, Wal-Mart U.S., Wal-Mart International and Sam’s Club in three categories; retail, wholesale, and e-commerce. Wal-Mart first opened in 1962 in Rogers, AK. The business is the result of its founder Sam Walton. His visionary leadership focused on helping customers and communities save money and live better. They feature a great selection of high quality merchandise, friendly service, and everyday low prices. Wal-Mart goal is to bring the best shopping experience to consumers. Wal-Mart business philosophy is based on the simple idea of making the customer No. 1. Wal-Mart as a corporation believe that by serving the customer’s need first the business would also serve its associates, shareholders, communities, and other stakeholders. Wal-Mart has one of the largest distribution operations in the world. In this essay one will look at the current status of Wal-mart corporate social responsibilities, stakeholders attitudes, and things they within the company to engage customers. With respect to their...
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...Wal-Mart’s Strategic Plan Presented By Samantha Akkad, Tina Chelune, Christina Coppola, Serina Lacey and Amanda Sentelle BMGT495-7380 University of Maryland; University College Professor Christian Berger November 22, 2011 Table of Contents Company Background 3 Vision & Mission Statement 3 Industry Analysis 4 Competitive Analysis 5 Financial Analysis 6 SWOT & QSPM Analysis 6 Strategy Recommendation 7 Action Plan 9 Conclusion 10 Appendix One- External Factor Evaluation Matrix for Walmart 11 Appendix Two- Internal Factor Evaluation Matrix for Walmart 12 Appendix Three- Walmart’s Competitive Profile Matrix (CPM) 13 Appendix Four- Financial Ratios 2010 Fiscal Year 14 Appendix Five- Walmart SWOT Matrix 15 Appendix Six- Porter Five Forces Model 16 Appendix Seven-Action Plan 17 References 18 Company Background Wal-Mart was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton with the first store opening in Rogers, Arkansas. Incorporated on October 31, 1969 and became publicly traded in 1972. What Sam Walton set out to accomplish when opening the first Wal-Mart store in 1962 was to save people money and to help them live better. Wal-Mart serves customers more than 200 million times per week at over 9,800 retail outlets located in 28 countries (Walmart, 2011). Retail outlets offer a wide variety of products, with stores having over 30 departments...
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...Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine Is Wal-Mart Too Powerful? Posted on October 05, 2003 http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2003-10-05/is-wal-mart-too-powerful In business, there is big, and there is Wal-Mart. With $245 billion in revenues in 2002, Wal-Mart Stores (WMT ) Inc. is the world's largest company. It is three times the size of the No. 2 retailer, France's Carrefour. Every week, 138 million shoppers visit Wal-Mart's 4,750 stores; last year, 82% of American households made at least one purchase at Wal-Mart. "There's nothing like Wal-Mart," says Ira Kalish, global director of Deloitte Research. "They are so much bigger than any retailer has ever been that it's not possible to compare." At Wal-Mart, "everyday low prices" is more than a slogan; it is the fundamental tenet of a cult masquerading as a company. Over the years, Wal-Mart has relentlessly wrung tens of billions of dollars in cost efficiencies out of the retail supply chain, passing the larger part of the savings along to shoppers as bargain prices. New England Consulting estimates that Wal-Mart saved its U.S. customers $20 billion last year alone. Factor in the price cuts other retailers must make to compete, and the total annual savings approach $100 billion. It's no wonder that economists refer to a broad "Wal-Mart effect" that has suppressed inflation and rippled productivity gains through the economy year after year. However, Wal-Mart's seemingly simple and virtuous business model is fraught with complications...
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