[lbo-talk] end of the Wal-Mart era?

[Miles Jackson]

Carl Remick wrote:
> On 10/3/07, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>   
>> Wall Street Journal - October 3, 2007
>>
>> ... the value loop is beginning to unravel. For 10 years through
>> 2005, Wal-Mart's sales gains at stores open at least a year averaged
>> 5.2%. So far this year, its comparable-store sales, a measure of
>> market share, is up just 1.3%. The pricing gap between Wal-Mart and
>> rivals has narrowed, and more customers are now choosing convenience
>> over wading through a supercenter.
>>
>> That compares with comparable-store gains of 4.6% at Target, which
>> markets itself as a trend-setting discounter, and 6% at membership-
>> club rival Costco Wholesale Corp., which peddles $500 Bordeaux wines
>> and $4,000 Cartier watches.
>>     
>
> Mirabile dictu, now we've gone from Wal-Mart's downscale dreariness to
> a nascent new business model:  Costco's upscale meretriciousness.  I
> see consumers going still further into hock to buy pretentious crap
> they don't need.  Ah, bliss is it in this dawn to be alive!
>
> Carl
>
>   
My wife's had a Costco membership for some time, and I can report from 
trudging up and down the aisles there that the above is a 
misrepresentation of the typical stuff people buy at the store.  At the 
Costco in Portland, I've never seen a $500 bottle of wine.  On the other 
hand, I have seen 36 roll packages of toilet paper, 12 lb blocks of 
cheese, and 2 gallon bottles of ketchup.  Buy in quantity, baby!

Miles