MalWart Fail
For years it seems I have read and heard about the ‘fabulous’ inventory control system that the behemoth of Bentonville has installed in its gazillions of stores that allows it to do real ‘just-in-time’ deliveries to effectively eliminate warehousing of goods.
You buy something and that item is deducted from the store’s inventory and it is automatically entered for replacement with the next truck. Nothing sits around gathering dust, and non-moving items are eliminated.
Then Nature started acting up and a major weakness of the system became apparent – there was no back-up if bridges went down, or stores were flooded. There was no warehouse of goods to replace what was lost.
Recently Bloomberg had an article on empty shelves at the stores, and the resulting flight of customers to other retailers. Of course, MalWart officials denied there was a problem [disgruntled employees, a few isolated cases].
Today I got roped into another trip to the lair of the beast, and apparently, the local store is one of those ‘isolated cases.’
My Mother worked in grocery stores for most of 45 years. I have worked in them to help out and pick up some spare cash. Keeping shelves stocked is the ‘prime directive’. If the customers can’t find it, you can’t sell it. Even if there is still product on the shelf, if you are stocking you ‘front the shelf’, i.e. you move the product forward so shoppers can see it.
There were gaping holes on those shelves, there were empty slots in the dairy cases, in the meat cases, in every section of the store except produce and the ‘deli’ area. This is bad management. A competent manager would never let this happen.
About that ‘lowest price’, that’s crap. I know about cat food, and MalWart does not have the lowest price on name brand cat food, and their price on their store brand isn’t that great. You have to check the weight and price the dry by the pound and the wet by the ounces. A number of their seeming ‘deals’ are due to reduced quantity.
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The only thing I buy at Mal-Wart nowadays is motor oil, they are $8 cheaper on a 5-quart container of synthetic 5w30 motor oil (my Jeep takes 6 quarts of the stuff). Other than that, I haven’t been there in months. The local discount grocers have lower food prices and the same price for kitty litter and Mal-Wart doesn’t carry the premium cat food brand that my babies get.
I noticed the bare shelves at my local Mal-Wart too the last time I was there, picking up oil for my Jeep’s 20,000 mile oil change. I assumed that it was just a case of being a busy shopping week and the trucks not catching up yet. But maybe not. Hrm…
They have apparently destroyed their inventory system. They don’t have warehouse space by design, so where do they store the stuff that isn’t on the shelves? It has to stay on the trucks, which means the trucks aren’t available for new stuff. The system backs up and crashes.
They have been running negative growth for several quarters, so the Waltons have managed to destroy what their father built.
Mal-Wart went wrong when they decided to cheap down the quality (and quantity) of everything. People noted that the quality of goods at the dollar store was no worse than the quality of what was being sold at Mal-Wart and the price per unit (ounce or whatever) was often better, so started doing their shopping for cheap trinkets at places like Dollar General instead. Then Mal-Wart, having destroyed their reputation with low-quality goods, decided that the solution was to improve the quality of their goods by stocking fewer but higher quality goods. But it is easier to destroy a reputation than to build one, as I think we are seeing first-hand here… I have noticed that the quality of goods stocked at Mal-Wart *has* improved slightly, but now they’re too often not on the shelves and besides Target has better goods for pretty much the same prices, so why bother?
The new Super Target across from my house is supposed to start construction next month. Means it will be misery here for six months or so while the contractors tear down the old department store and build the new store, but after that, I will never have to wander further than four blocks from my home to get anything I need.
Target and Publix supermarket are fine for the stuff I buy most often. The thing I really noticed during my scan at MalWart was that they really didn’t have much of a selection. They don’t carry the brands that I prefer to buy and I wouldn’t feed the feral cats from their meat market. Another thing I noticed was dented cans. That’s a grocery store no-no.
They used to specialize in US made products when Sam was a alive, but not even their produce is from the US. They did have a good selection of Mexican products, and not just foods, but no Mexican Coke.
In all fairness, Mexican Coke is a gray market item here in El Norte so it’s no wonder that Mal-Wart doesn’t have any.
I used to go to Mal-Wart all the time, but nowadays I rarely go there. The only things they have better prices on is vitamins and motor oil. And the difference on vitamins isn’t worth the drive for me compared to going to the grocery store four blocks from my house.
There’s a real Mexican supermarket down the road, so I can it it there when I need a fix. It’s only fitting since the Mexicans were brought here by the contractor who built Sam’s Club and the current MalWart. We didn’t have any Spanish speaking residents who were in or associated with the military prior to that. Taco Bell was as close as you got.