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Retail giant adjusts to economy
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Rosalind Brewer, division president of Walmart, said when the economy began to turn about 18 months ago, the company's business began to transition, including:
An uptick in customers "stocking up" on weekends. "Sundays at 3 o'clock, I personally would not go to Walmart," she said with a laugh.
Core customers in the area had household incomes averaging $75,000. Now Walmart is seeing households with incomes that are well over six figures.
Customers on the other end of the spectrum are seen shopping at 12:01 a.m., just after midnight in time for their paychecks to clear at their banks. "We cannot keep our lines open at 12:01," Brewer said. "We have been flowing our labor into stores at peak hours."
Shopping habits are changing. Customers are coming in for perishables every two days, spending very limited amounts of money. A half gallon of milk might be bought three days before the end of the month. Private labels those non-national products or store brands are very popular during the lean times of the month.
In response to shopping habits, Walmart makes a complete transformation of the store. On the 20th, the tightest part of the month, associates stock nothing that costs more than $10 in the "end-caps" of the rows of shelves. Clearance items pop up, too. Brewer said if you think this is exclusive to Walmart, look at Publix and its buy one, get one free program.
"We have to be empathetic with who our customer is and who is our neighbor," Brewer said.
The company is opening up more small stores 2,000 square feet instead of the 180,000 square feet of space in a supercenter. The 50 independent grocery stores in Louisiana, the Carolinas and Florida that are opening is another way to address the market. And Walmart is developing its online strategy. A recent "war" with Amazon.com over book prices is an example of that.
"We believe that putting more bricks and mortar in the ground is not the wave of the future, not environmentally friendly," Brewer said.
Walmart offers delivery of certain products, such as personal care items. Its ship to store option is popular, allowing online orders of products to be sent to the store closest to the consumer's home.
Tags: Milton
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