Constant's pations

If it's more than 30 minutes old, it's not news. It's a blog.

Friday, April 08, 2005

Wal Mart refuses to accept competitors prices

Quick tip: OSHA action against Wal Mart upheld.

Think you can price match at Wal Mart? Think again. Does Walmart match prices of competitors? Not always. WalMart may be upgrading quality, but it's doing a double punch.

Rather than still accept lower prices, Wal Mart is now taking competitors off the list. Wal Mart employees argue that Wal Mart can't be expected to compete against firms that have lower quality.

Strange, I'm not sure why the same product can be considered "different" or "lower" quality.

Yet, the policy is not uniformly applied across districts. Some stores enforce the rule, while other stores refuse to accept the competitor prices.

And curiouly, not all employees within the same store consistently apply the rule. Some employees know the change in policy, and others keep taking the lower price. Why the inconsistency?

Management states the policy is to ensure product quality. What appears to be going in, in practice, is that Wal Mar is not able to compete against all competitors.

Rather than price match, Wal Mart may in some cases state that a competitor "doesn't have the same quality," assigning this company to a "we do not match list."

Strange, it's unclear why Wal Mart will not price match on produce items. How can "similarly ripe grapefruits" not be the same quality?

For Wal Mart, a rose is not always a rose, when it costs less at a competitor.

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