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

[Robert Wrubel]

I confess, I shop at CostCo!  The ability to buy
cantaloupe and avocados and good lettuce year round,
plums and peaches for five months, five pounds of
chicken thighs for $5.80, and smoked salmon for $10,
is hard to resist.  For my vile support of this pillar
of globalization and atmospheric pollution, however, I
get to observe American habits close-up.  My lasting
impression of CostCo is the look of expectant bliss,
at llAM of an ordinary working day, on the faces of
people streaming in from the parking lot.  
Unforgettable!  

BobW

--- Carl Remick <carlremick at gmail.com> 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
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