I want the two price lists on products that an average American would
buys if he/she were to a) buy from WalMart and b) if he /she were to
buy from a typical non-WalMart store. I am looking at rough
approximations on how cheap it is to buy from WalMart ( definitely not
interested in hidden costs and all anti WalMart information which is
currently flooding the internet). 

CAVEAT:
1. The data should be from sources that can be authenticated -if necessary.
2. The two lists should contain the same products
3. It should have a minimum of 20 products accross the following
product categories a)Food b)Clothing c)Consumer Durables d)Entertainment

Pointing me towards a reliable 'free' report/article with that
information would also be considered as sufficient.

---

Clarification of Question by indy_joe-ga on 25 Apr 2005 04:43 PDT

I would also be satisfied with data which is got comparing the prices
from Walmart's online site and a site that has typically non WalMart
prices.

---

Clarification of Question by indy_joe-ga on 25 Apr 2005 08:21 PDT

Somehow I seem to have conveyed the impression that I am looking at
profitability. All I am asking for comparative prices from a WalMart (
one presumes that WalMart's prices are uniform across USA) and from a
non WalMart store.

If the difficulty is in defining the 'average' American family and the
selection of items from a)Food b)Clothing c)Consumer Durables
d)Entertainment - I suggest you take just two items from each and they
just need to be grossly representative. For example for consumer
durables if you were to select a 21" Sony TV and a Whirlpool washing
machine that would do. To that extent I am diluting my earlier
criteria that 20 items be selected.

If one has two store catalogues - one for WalMart and the other for a
non WalMart store it would suffice. Would'nt these be available
online?

---

Request for Question Clarification by bobbie7-ga on 25 Apr 2005 15:55 PDT

Hello indy_joe,

The following article story provides price comparison for a 20 item
checklist at Walmart and Target in Sacramento, California in March of
2005.
http://www.cockeyed.com/citizen/target/walmart_versus_target01.html

Does the information in this article answer your question or do you
require something different?

Thanks,
Bobbie7

---

Clarification of Question by indy_joe-ga on 25 Apr 2005 21:07 PDT

Bobbie7,

I have seen this article earlier on my first google search and it is
not what I want. While I am trying to get an idea of how much cheaper
WalMart is this article tries to prove the contrary.

Funny, when WalMart is being pilloried for pricing strategies which
makes it competitive enough to threaten anyone even indirectly
connected to the retail sector - it is strange that I just cannot get
basic data (even secondary data - why not even strong anecdotal ones!)
which indicates to what extent the consumer benefits. If so many
consumers vote for WalMart in their daily purchase decision what I am
sking for must be common information. This is very surprising to me.

---

Clarification of Question by indy_joe-ga on 25 Apr 2005 21:12 PDT

jack_of_few_trades,

Thanks. But still not what I want. There should be some article/study.
Even if it is a couple of years old it would do....

Thank you for your question.
 
I believe that to answer it well, your question will require more time
and effort than the average amount of time and effort associated with
this price. Here is a link to guidelines about pricing your question,
in the pricing guide: https://answers.google.com/answers/pricing.html

Indy_Joe --

Politicalguru is correct about the enormous amount of work involved,
inasmuch as pricing is a very local issue (milk in Miami markets will
naturally be different than milk in Seattle markets).

A different way to accomplish this is to look at the financial reports
for different chains and determine what their average contribution
margin is.  This Google Answer discusses Costco (warehouse store) vs.
the average American supermarket:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=290394

Here's how DEPARTMENTS within these major chains may vary --
especially in the area of the answer marked "Profit Margins":
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=204979

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

From my experience, Best Buy has the cheapest electronics (ignoring
sales offered by them and their competitors), and they seem to have
very similar prices to WalMart:
Sony 27" TV/Stereo: $226 Wal Mart    $219 Best Buy
http://www.walmart.com/search/browse-ng.do?ref=125875.244125+500748.4293925313&path=0%3A3944%3A133276%3A3996
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?type=category&id=cat03003

Polaroid portable DVD:  $149 Wal Mart $169 (on sale for $149 right now) Best Buy
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/catalog.gsp?cat=62055&path=0%3A3944%3A133276%3A62055
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=pcmcat13900050017&type=category&categoryRep=cat03000

Food is a clear win for Wal Mart over even their cheapest competitor
Shoppers Food Warehouse.  I've comparrison shopped at Food Lion,
Giant, Shoppers, Wal Mart, Super Fresh, and Ukrops for quite some time
and found that Shoppers is a close second to Wal Mart and all the
others are far more expensive (unless you are willing to shop only the
specials, then the other chains can potentially be cheaper, but no one
only buys what is 50% off).
Unfortunately I didn't see the Food department listed at the Wal Mart
site or I'd be able to give many examples, here are some I remember
from Wal Mart:
bananas: .38/lb
name brand 12.5 oz bag of chips: 2.00
Sams Ice Cream normal box size: 2.29
Unfortunately there is no WalMart right near me now for groceries, but
I definately remember them being about 5% under Shoppers (including
Shoppers specials) and about 25% under Giant/Food Lion (ignoring their
specials)

Perhaps someone else has some quality info concerning appliances and
clothes.  Although I think the brand names might be hard to match up
with most stores.

There might be more info on WalMart vs Target or vs KMart, but I don't
think other direct comparrisons can be made simply because WalMart
sells everything whereas most stores are much more specific.

If you compare WalMart to their best competitor in any given market
then the prices are probably very similar.  But if you compare WalMart
to the average of all their competitors then WalMart will win every
time in price.  WalMart pulls people in because they have the low
price in everything (and they have everything) so it is extremely
convenient to shop there.  You can pick up everything on your list and
know that you won't be paying too much for any of it.

WalMart is also known for its small town takeovers.  Most of the other
big name stores can't thrive in small towns because there simply isn't
enough of a market to support them.  So when WalMart comes in they
have very little competition for any of their goods and they are far
cheaper than the Mom & Pop stores around town.

I'd love to help you find exactly what you're looking for in a
research essay of sorts, but I'm fairly certain it doesn't exist.

Jack,
I wonder if anyone follows what happens to Wal Mart's prices in small
towns after they have gained a local monopoly?  Or do they have a
policy of nation-wide pricing?

Jack/Myoarin,

If a study does not exist, I would settle for some very basic price
comparisons with ANY non WalMart store for two identical products from
each of the product categories that I have indicated.

Myoarin --

There are a couple of scathing books that allege that Wal-Mart is
predatory in its pricing (and advertising) upon entry into a market,
then cuts both back once its target market share is established:

Amazon.com
"How Wal-Mart is Destroying How Wal-Mart is Destroying America and The
World and What You Can Do About It," Bill Quinn
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1580082319/qid=1114576544/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-7430483-1816749

Amazon.com
"The Case Against Wal-Mart"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0971154236/qid=1114576696/sr=2-2/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_2/104-7430483-1816749

A search on Amazon.com for "Wal-Mart" will reveal a wide variety of
books -- and points of view from praising to critical.  I'd picked up
Quinn's book several months ago after a Wal-Mart related question and
he was very clear about how the retail giant gets communities to
subsidize its entrance into a community, while other retailers are
clueless.

And for the original poster, Indy-Joe: understand that my original
comments were intended to show that pricing is based on cost.  Whether
Safeway buys 1 million gallons of milk or Wal-Mart buys 1.5 million
gallons -- their overhead adds more to the cost than the difference in
prices at the producer level.  They are both buying at very close to
the same cost, whatever Wal-Mart ads might claim.

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

Thanks Omnivorous-ga, ... and Sam W. was just a nice ole country boy
trying to give folks more for their hard-earned dollars ...

Omnivorous,

But none of these even points remotely to what I am trying to unearth
which is:What is the positive price difference that the consumer that
the consumer gets? It may be predatory but can we quantify the price
difference (at the first level)?

If the WalMart phenomena is so much in the forefront of USA's (and
some other countries maybe ) collective concern, then, how is it that
such an elementary question like what I am asking, elicits no easy
answer?

Am I missing something?

The books which you mention are sensational in the sense that they
take the iconoclastic view against the currently accepted faith that
Walmart is the cheapest. My proposition is: 1. WalMart is the cheapest
because a)It has the largest market share among all retaliers which
primarily driven by having the lowest prices b)It is also growing the
fastest for the same reason 2. If so, to what extent is Walmart
cheaper?

IJ --

Bobbie7 has given you an excellent head-to-head pricing example

I'd tried to explain it from cost-up pricing.

The detail you seek of head-to-head pricing examples between chains
exists only on the shelves of marketing managers at national retail
chains.  They have paid tens of thousands of dollars for the analysis.

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA