Date: Fri, 18 May 2001 00:31:35 -0400
Reply-To: The Bus Depot <vanagon@busdepot.com>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: The Bus Depot <vanagon@busdepot.com>
Subject: Re: Wal-Mart parking and unfair competition - (partially
off-topic)
In-Reply-To: <v04220805b729f8718e32@[207.23.94.162]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> Are we so desperate to find place to sleep that Wal-Mart is used as
> campground? I understand if there is emergency or breakdown but "camping"
> there? Truckstops aren't much better with rigs running all night
> long...
Evon, Haley (now almost 3, but 5 months old when we toured Europe for a
month), and I have camped in shopping center parking lots, highway fuel/rest
stops, etc. many times as we traveled by Westy through the U.S. and Europe.
Of course when a scenic rest stop presented itself, without taking us too
far out of our way or costing much, we availed ourselves of it. But why
spend too much time (or money) looking for one if all you're going to do is
pull in, sleep, wake up, and pull out? As often as not, I'd rather make
quick work of that end of things, and focus on finding scenic places to
enjoy my waking hours instead. (i.e. if I spend a half hour looking for a
scenic place to sleep, that's half an hour I could have spent looking for a
scenic place to hike.) Of course, every once in a while, waking to an
incredible sunrise over a picturesque setting is not to be missed...
> Hey, while we are email'ing wal-mart, can you ask about their propensity
> to go into a small town, undercut the competition and then leave town-
> after the local hardware store, etc have gone belly up....
Okay, admittedly off topic. But...
As a small business owner myself, you might think I'd be anti-Walmart, but
actually I'm not. Walmart is not successful because they're big; they're big
because they're successful. Walmart didn't just drop from the sky as a huge
mega-chain. They started out as a single local store, and did really
(really) well for themselves.
Local merchants having to compete with big chains is nothing new. Small
local merchants have been competing against big chains since Woolworths
opened up hundreds of stores that competed with small town general stores.
After that it was Kmart/Kresge. Not to mention 7-11 killing off a ton of
corner groceries, with their 24 hour convenience etc. And after Walmart
there will be someone else. But as they say, it isn't just the size that
matters. Remember Grants? Korvettes? Montgomery Ward? Gimbels? Hechinger?
They also had a tremendous size advantage over competing local merchants -
but where are they now? So it's not Walmart's size per se that really gives
them their biggest advantage - it's their success. They have managed,
better than most, to give the consumer something that he perceives that he
is not getting from the local merchant, or from other large retailers.
(Whether that perception is justified is irrelevent to the rules of the free
enterprise game.) The consumer votes with his wallet, to the deteriment of
merchants (small and large) who simply aren't playing the game as well.
That's what the free enterprise system is all about. And the fact that
Walmart is not afraid to close an unprofitable location (which actually
doesn't happen all that often) is simply another example of being a smart
business. The most successful retail chains, not just Walmart, won't
hesitate to close an unprofitable location, as well they should if they want
to survive. Most of the now-defunct chains I cited above were much slower to
do so - until the bankruptcy courts eventually did it for them. Good lesson
there. In fact, even a small merchant will not keep a location open that is
losing money unless he has a fiscal death wish; he too is in business to
earn a living, not as a nonprofit public service.
Does this mean that a local merchant has to roll over and die if a Walmart
opens nearby? Absolutely not. Competition like Walmart and Home Depot
tends to thin out the herd, so to speak. The local merchants that survive
are the ones that react to the competition, offering things that it cannot,
such as superior service, selection, product, expertise, or some other
commodity that makes them a viable competitor. In fact, often the consumer
benefits from the fact that Walmart has lit a fire under the local
businesses' asses, making them work harder for their customers. (A few local
businesses that I patronize come to mind. They are now kicking the
megastores' butts in their particular niche; they could have been this good
all along, but without the serious competition didn't have the incentive.)
On the other hand, the merchants that were weak to begin with, or simply put
their heads in the sand, go away. Yes, it's harsh. But it's also what the
free enterprise system is all about.
In my opinion you can't hate Walmart simply for being so good at what they
do. They're no more predatory than any of the other big retail chains,
which _all_ do their best to steal business from local stores (as well as
eachother). Why pick on Walmart specifically? Okay, maybe tax the living
heck out of them because they're so filthy rich. But you have to let them
play the game just like any other retailer. Locally, a town fought against a
Walmart coming in, but then let a Target open up in the same location
instead. Why? Just because Target is not as successful? Do they really
think that Target will intentionally be gentle to the local merchants, or
less prone to close the location if it isn't profitable? If they do, they
are naive. Believe me, Target would love nothing more than to be the next
Walmart.
That said, it's entirely possible that someday somebody will put me out of
business by doing what I do better, just as Walmart has done to many
merchants. Just because I'm successful now doesn't mean that down the road
someone smarter, shrewder, leaner, or just plain luckier won't whoop my ass
good. Believe me, I won't go down without a fight. But if I lose, well,
that's how the free enterprise system works. I knew that getting into it.
If I didn't like the rules, then I shouldn't have decided to play the game.
Of course many would strongly disagree with my assessment. My wife is one of
them. She's a hopeless softie; she'd make a lousy CEO. :-) She shops
Walmart sometimes, but feels guilty doing it. In fact she'll knowingly pay
more money for inferior goods in order to support a local merchant. She
regularly buys marginally stale (or sometimes even not-so-marginally stale)
groceries, for twice the price of the big supermarket, from the corner
grocer because he's the "little guy." Personally, I feel that if he really
wanted her support, he wouldn't sell her stale food in the first place.
- Ron Salmon
The Bus Depot, Inc.
www.busdepot.com
(215) 234-VWVW
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