The One Thing Wal-Mart isn't Good at
While Wal-Mart (WMT) has pretty much found a tremendous balance between its systems, pricing and predictability, there is one area that they continually fall behind in, that could potentially cause them big problems in the future.
The problem has come about mainly when the company pretty much covered the rural areas of America and started looking at the urban areas as their next targeted market. That's when everything hit the fan.
This is such a big area to talk about that to attempt to do it would be impossible, as far as the details of it go. But from the larger picture, the entry into the urban market in America caused Wal-Mart to have an identity crises. In the midst of that crisis, the companies enemies started an all-out attack that the very problem with who they were caused them to go on the defensive because they didn't know how to respond to their attackers. There has been so many lies thrown out about the company that it is almost impossible to sift through it to reveal the truth.
Still, in spite of many lies, much of this is Wal-Mart's doing. Not because of the misrepresentations of their enemies, but because they started to enter into areas that were far removed from their purpose, expertise and core customer. They tried to be everything to everybody and it backfired quickly.
Even today the company seems afraid to go on the offensive and answer many of the things that are so outrageously false, that unless you're one of those shooting 
the missiles at them, it wouldn't be hard to disprove and show the truth.
Here's the strange thing about those that are attempting to sway public opinion about the company, they're stationed in their perch in Manhatten, and have used their connections with the national press to advance their private agendas. The press was glad to jump into bed with them.
The old idea of poor small-town American merchants being overwhelmed by Wal-Mart, and how that's bad for America for some unknown reason than some mythical, nostalgic reason for the big-business people on the East coast to be concerned with. So they began their assault on Sam Walton and the company who they placed the blame on.
Again, to me the problem is that Wal-Mart has become unsure of who they are and the direction they should take. Because of that they've allowed alot of the conversation to be dictated by a bunch of wealthy elites who pretend they have a strong concern for the poor small-town merchants.
What Wal-Mart isn't good at is fighting battles. They have been nocked off balance and their general non-response has made it look like their enemies are correct in their assessments of the company. I think they're wrong in trying to be one store in rural America and another in urban America. To me this is the underlying problem that has made them unable to get their message out. The message has become garbled and people want to know what Wal-Mart really is, as far as its purpose goes. Until they answer that, they're going to continue to struggle in this area.
To me they need to remain who they always have been, without apology. Let the consumers decide as they always have with their dollars. They should simply continue to progress into the larger markets and let their detractors whine and scream, while letting the consumers do the real voting. Why change something that's worked for them for decades, as far as the purpose of the company goes.
Sam Walton: 10 Rules for Building a Successful Business
Sam Walton - Retail Success Story
Sam Walton: King Of The Discounters
Sam Walton: Great From the Start
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