MKT 304 WSJ#2 - Grade: A PDF

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mandatory essay on WSJ twice in the semester ...

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The Wall Street Journal: Not All Big Box Stores Are Dead: Wal-Mart, Home Depot Buck Shopping Slump

Marketing 304 March 15, 2017

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In the Wall Street Journal article, Not All Big Box Stores Are Dead: Wal-Mart, Home Depot Buck Shopping Slump, Sarah Nassauer and Anne Steele discuss how

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Home Depot Inc. are continuously find more innovative ways to get customers to physically visit store locations while simultaneously shifting the customer base towards online shopping. Wal-Mart has reported that more customers seem to be becoming into the physical store locations and spending more money “Versus two years ago, our stores are in better shape than they were and you're seeing the results of that,” said by Wal-Mart’s CEO, Brett Biggs. The way that Wal-Mart is attempting to shift its customer base online is creating a bigger online platform so that their shoppers are able to have more variety. Last September Wal-Mart bought Jet.com for $3.3 billion and since has seen a 21% spike in its first quarter, and then a 16% growth in its most recent quarter. So far Wal-Mart has revealed a $3.76 billion profit, down from $4.57 billion; thus the “strength of the company's U.S. store business continues to come at the expense of profits, which fell 18% in the quarter.” However the retail giant is continuing to invest billions in the raise of pay for its U.S. store workers, keeping prices comparably low, and expanding e-commerce sales so that they keep up with their greatest competitor, Amazon.com Inc. On the other hand Home Depot is seeing a 5.8% rise in its “same-store” sales during its fourth quarter due to its strong housing market. Through further investigation they found that this is due to the markets promotion of home-improvement projects and “do it your self” projects from home. Home Depot also mentioned that even though their online sales are steadily moving up, most of those are in-store pickups. Acknowledging this, Home Depot's chief executive, Craig Menear, says that their “stores have never been more relevant.”

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I believe that Wal-Mart is enjoying the most amount of success currently, and even though Home Depot is not failing, they are not up to par with the path that Wal-Mart is on.

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The main factor that is contributing to Wal-Marts successes are their determination to keep expanding their business online while maintain a strong profit flow from physical locations. Many other factors include their high prioritization of keeping their everyday prices comparably low by their competitor’s standards and investing big bucks in raising pay for their employees....