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WMT - Walmart Inc


collegeinvestor

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Guest longinvestor

Agree, this could be a good one. Powerful incentive of making the extra buck for the employee. While keeping overall costs low. The best kind of cost saving is the cost nobody incurs. As a customer of Wal-Mart online grocery, I'm doing the same, picking up on my way home. Just needs me to plan ahead; If I'm in Wal-Mart's shoes, I'd be thinking of incentivizing customers who plan ahead with additional discounts because it makes it a lower cost of everything. Transportation from the regional warehouse, picking and who knows, allowing employees to also plan ahead (daycare etc.).

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Guest longinvestor

I have both Sam's club and COST memberships - for most things, COST and Sams prices are identical. Costco has better customer service (and also a pricier card). There are some items available in one but not the other.

 

I have seen items closer to expiry in Costco as well but if you search through the stack, the ones at the bottom or behind have longer expiry dates many times. If they are too close, I just don't buy them.

 

Hey all:

 

I haven't posted anything about WMT in a while now...but I've got another observation.

 

Even though i have a FREE membership at Sam's Club, I am itching to PAY to go back Costco.

 

WHY?

 

Many, many different reasons, but here is a new one.  One that I had suspected for quite a while but am POSITIVE about tonight.

 

As I am sitting here perusing the interwebs...I am snacking on a cup of hummus & pita chips...Hmmm, the hummus looks/tastes just a bit "funny".  Not funny in the "ha-ha-ha" way either...So I look at the expiration date.  Still good, but really damn close to the expiration date.  I just got this stuff less than a week ago.  These are the small, individually packed portions and not the 55 gallon "super saver drum" of hummus either.

 

So I think a bit and have notice several things.  Cheeze=its that I got were border line stale.  They were "close dated"...I also complained to a clerk once that Sam's club did not have the standard size Perrier water in stock.  He said, yeah, tell me about it...Who knows what corporate is doing next?  They are always looking for bargain/closeout/non-standard stuff.  This was the response of the clerk to my question.

 

So I very strongly suspect that Sam's Club is buying "close dated" stuff at a discount.  I don't think that Costco would ever do that.  Costco's turnover is probably better than Sam's Club too.

 

Counting the days till I go back...

 

This is the oldest trick in selling perishable goods. It has been done through the ages, on wheelbarrows to supermarkets. I believe we may be hyper sensitive to the dates that get printed on packaged goods. We need to worry more about additives that stretch out the "good until" date relative to what nature by herself would've allowed the main ingredient/s to stay fresh.

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  • 5 months later...
Guest longinvestor

Wmt had a 50% jump in online sales. I see that when I go to pick up my online grocery order six months ago. Used to be 1 or 2 cars. Now there's5 to 10. Customer service is great too.!

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I wonder why Amazon isn't trying to beat WMT here? Maybe WMT is grossly overpaying?

 

Amazon tried... but it's a good sign they're staying disciplined and not going all "strategic at any price!".

 

Whatever AMZN isn't spending on Flipkart, they can still spend on India, and that might be a high return use for the capital.

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"Whatever AMZN isn't spending on Flipkart, they can still spend on India, and that might be a high return use for the capital."

 

I know what you mean, but I laughed a little bit inside when you say that Amazon has a high return use for capital.

 

Amazon may just be trying to up the bid that Wal-Mart needs to pay in order to compete head-to-head in India.  FlipKart may have the lead in India, but Amazon is definitely a formidable opponent.  It may be a case where Amazon is trying to weaken its competition by forcing them to bid a higher price.

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I used to live in India when Flipkart became popular and used to shop on Flipkart. In my visits to India over the last few years I have switched to using Amazon. They have captured a large market share from Flipkart which used to almost be a monopoly. Flipkart's customer service degraded and the site usage experience (try getting out of their mailing lists) deteriorated. I have never had a reason in the last 4-5 years to go back to Flipkart.

 

My 2c.

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I used to live in India when Flipkart became popular and used to shop on Flipkart. In my visits to India over the last few years I have switched to using Amazon. They have captured a large market share from Flipkart which used to almost be a monopoly. Flipkart's customer service degraded and the site usage experience (try getting out of their mailing lists) deteriorated. I have never had a reason in the last 4-5 years to go back to Flipkart.

 

My 2c.

 

Thanks for sharing your first-hand experience.

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"Whatever AMZN isn't spending on Flipkart, they can still spend on India, and that might be a high return use for the capital."

 

I know what you mean, but I laughed a little bit inside when you say that Amazon has a high return use for capital.

 

Amazon may just be trying to up the bid that Wal-Mart needs to pay in order to compete head-to-head in India.  FlipKart may have the lead in India, but Amazon is definitely a formidable opponent.  It may be a case where Amazon is trying to weaken its competition by forcing them to bid a higher price.

 

Why is it funny? They've created hundreds of billions in value with $27B in B/S equity.

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"Whatever AMZN isn't spending on Flipkart, they can still spend on India, and that might be a high return use for the capital."

 

I know what you mean, but I laughed a little bit inside when you say that Amazon has a high return use for capital.

 

I believe it does. It's using the high-return, mature parts of the business to finance the early-stage, still loss-making startups within the large 'conglomerate'.

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The thought that immediately jumped in my mind is that they enter a new "vertical" by operating at a loss and taking out any and all incumbents.  The short term returns are sacrificed for long term market control. I remember the outrage over Wal-Mart in the 1990's killing small businesses.  Somehow Amazon gets a free pass. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Looks like they finally did it:

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/walmart-agrees-to-buy-77-stake-in-flipkart-for-16-billion-1525864334

 

Walmart Inc.  said Wednesday it had agreed to take control of India’s largest e-commerce company, Flipkart Group, for $16 billion, the largest acquisition in the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer’s history as it tries to fend off Amazon.com Inc.  at home and abroad.
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  • 3 months later...
Guest longinvestor

WMT doing well with eCommerce. Earnings are stellar. It’s just a matter of time when they broadcast “no membership fees” to go after AMZN. Kinda like Southwest’s “bags fly free”. That one is a repeated body blow to other airlines as passengers cringe when they pay $25 and 50 at each check in.

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Multiples don't matter so much if war is afoot. The question is who will win and eat the other's lunch. I don't own WMT because they let Jeff Bezos build a massive head start but am open to changing my mind.

 

War creates disruption and markets experiencing disruption can see large market share changes. If you believe WMT can capitalize on that by going on the aggressive against Jeff Bezos, cutting margins may not be that big of a deal depending on the narrative shift it creates.

 

If WMT cut margins but revenue growth accelerated to double digits, the market may not find that so horrifying in the current environment. Some would say the Walton family cutting the dividend and reinvesting in their moat would make them "Outsiders."

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Guest longinvestor

Walmart appears to be using the eCommerce by pouring more concrete into their base business. The ship-to-store option is a low overall cost strategy, it leverages their massive logistics footprint. When I'm shopping on Walmart.com, I find that they are nudging me to the pick-up-at-the-store option versus shipping to the house. The co location of Sam's Club and the gas station in the same parking lot as Wal-Mart appears to be a key advantage. Becoming increasingly a one-stop shop, I expect them to drive a strategy of attracting more essential services (Food, haircut etc.) to the premises. Nothing new, but more of it.     

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60% of the U.S. population lives within 5 miles of a Wal-Mart, and 96% lives within 20 miles.  Wal-Mart has a temporary solution for the last mile and instant delivery problems, let the customer come and pick it up.  There are many times two day shipping simply will not suffice and I drive to Wal-Mart.  If they have it waiting for me to pick up so I don't get out of my car, even better. 

 

I recommended to family to invest in Wal-Mart when it was in the 50's; I wish I took my own advice.

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