nocturnia wrote:

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Interesting thing, watching these two behemoths squaring off against one another.

Someone recently posted that "Wal-Mart doesn't consider Kroger serious competition.." Well, that's exactly right; they don't. And that arrogant thinking is exactly at the heart of what's wrong with Wal-Mart, and why, if there isn't a serious re direction in their corporate strategy, they will go the way of K-Mart.

I've been with Wally for well over a decade. At the time I started, they were absolutely at the top of their game; they had Kroger all but defeated. But in the past 5--7 years, they have become lazy, greedy and ****-sure that nothing can ever touch them....Well, we've seen what that thinking produces, haven't we?

Wal-Mart achieved its fame through greater in stock, better variety and lower prices than almost EVERY body. None of that is true any more, and the only thing keeping them in the upper leagues, I believe, is the market placement/brain washing on their customer base. It tickles me pink to see Kroger ramping up their game; it makes me laugh out loud that Wally doesn't even see them coming fast behind them in the rear view mirror.

I would love nothing more to get out of retail management, but I'm kinda painted into a corner. Even so, I'm giving serious thought to jumping ship and looking into Cost-Co or Meier.

 

Things between Kroger and Wal-Mart are going to become very interesting indeed to watch, over the next couple years or so,

 

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 Yeah...Wal-Mart does a lot of subtle customer brain-washing with their ads. Of course, you have to know exactly what they're doing to see that. I tell ya...That yellow smiley is gonna have a frown real soon, if Kroger keeps ramping up it's game. It seems whenever Wal-Mart puts an ad on TV anymore, I just laugh at their arrogance...Just like in that old story of David & Goliath, even the Mightiest of the Mighty can fall. It's not a matter of if, but how and when.

Here are some interesting articles for you...

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/breakout/3-reasons-walmart-empire-collapsing-164315981.html

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/where-walmart-isnt-four-countries-184946433.html

Most Wal-Mart customers are hard-wired into believing, without a doubt, that the prices are always lower. They don't actually check - good thing they have commercials that check for them, on purposely selected items, of course. They are also too lazy to go to more than one store, so they buy junk to save a trip. But if they want to wade through the crowd and stand in line for an hour to check out, that's their business. I'll be at Kroger.

-- Edited by Pizza1029 on Monday 14th of October 2013 07:40:42 AM

Thanks for the responses, I agree with you all.

Particularly about the meat and poultry quality, the beer/liquor prices, etc. Another big plus I like about Kroger is, so far anyway, they've resisted the super-sized store expansion: This is very good, as I (and a growing number of other aging customers) don't feel like walking five city blocks just for tooth paste.

Kroger kicks ass at produce too. Walmart's selection, at least in my town (and it is a supercenter) just isn't as good. Plus the prices are higher on items like potatoes. Those stupid commercials tick me off because of course it's only the items they want to show.

I do go to Walmart for some things, but overall Kroger has a better selection on items like meat and produce.

Walmart is better from a kroger employee view