I found this article to be interesting because Wal-Mart is limiting selection of products that can be purchased in its store- but they are the staple items that are continuously purchased, depleted and replaced. One of the most telling things in the story is they decided to pull Glad sandwich bags off the shelves, until Glad decided to make their Great Value bags, as well. They can use the decisions they make to gain another bargaining advantage- after all, it is their store and there is limited space.
They make a good point about 15 different prices of toothpaste being harder to choose from- but they also say it is based on the economy. Will good economic times mean they need to restock the shelves with more toothpaste or sandwich bags?
Here is a link to the article-
Dumped! Brand names fight to stay in stores
By Parija Kavilanz, senior writerFebruary 15, 2010: 12:52 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Don't be shocked if you can't find your favorite salad dressing or mouthwash on your next trip to Wal-Mart.
Large retailers -- including Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500), the world's biggest -- are wrestling with having too many types of brand-name products. At the same time, shoppers are buying less and looking for bargains.
So unless a particular brand is a top seller in its category, it's getting knocked off the shelf -- and sometimes getting replaced by a cheaper store brand.
For example, Wal-Mart recently removed Glad and Hefty-branded storage bags from shelves, replacing them with its own lower-priced Great Value brand, according to the parent companies of both products.
In the case of Hefty, parent Pactiv Corp. (PTV) told CNNMoney.com that Wal-Mart reversed its decision, and will return its products to shelves this spring -- after Pactiv agreed to make the Great Value bags that will sell alongside the competing Hefty product.
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2 comments:
I read the whole article about wall marts limiting name brand brands on their shelves and I do have some opinions about the issue. first I do think it was and is a good tactic to get their own brand to sell more b limiting the shelf space for name brand products like glade and other name brands. But, I thought about the average person that goes into wall mart and is counting on those name brand products. This may result it the loss of loyal customers who can not find their product of choise as so many customers have become brand loyal to many products. It also might be a bad idea to limit the shelf space due to the high volume of the store as many people like to shop there to buy these products it might make customers unsatisfied if they can not find there product. Overall these issues might serve as a small problem but as customers get used to other changes, I think overall wall mart will benefit with this change and make name brands less valued as people might change their opinions about the overall, "Name brand" products.
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