WHAT THEY KNOW ABOUT YOU AND ME Part 2 (Wal-Mart)

THINGS WAL-MART KNOWS ABOUT YOU & ME *

This Post is limited to what Wal-Mart, and other Point of Sale companies, knows about you when you make a purchase. You might be surprised!

1.   WHAT YOU BOUGHT (BRAND, SIZE, COLOR, AND QUANITY)

2.   WHAT ELSE DID YOU PURCHASE DURING THIS VISIT

3.   COST AND METHOD OF PAYMENT (DL, address, phone number maybe involved)

4.   DATE, TIME, STORE LOCATION, & CHECK OUT AISLE

5.   CHECKER USED (SOME CHECKERS HAVE “FANS”)

6.   PRICE OF INDIVIDUAL ITEMS AND TOTAL PURCHASE

7.   IMPULSE ITEMS PURCHASED FROM CHECK-OUT AISLE

8.   WAS ITEM SEASONAL? END CAP PROMOTION?

9.   COUPONS ? FOOD STAMPS?

10.                     TAX EXEMPT?

 

This list is not encyclopedic. But it is enough to ask what does Wal-Mart do with all of this information? I am glad you asked.

a.   Inventory Control---Allegedly each USA Wal-Mart is located within 300 miles of a distribution center. What can be bad about that?  Please keep reading.

b.   Marketing and Advertising---What sells is what they stock. If an item is a hot moving item, Wal-Mart sells end caps to these companies.  Stay with me on this---If a large number of people are buying Pepsi and Ruffles at the same time, Wal-Mart says to both how about doing some joint -co-op advertising and joint placement. Wal-Mart will sell both Pepsi and Ruffles and the cash registers go Ka- Ching throughout the day and night.

c.    Expansion and Product placement sets are determined from your purchase.  

d.   Pay and Performance evaluation comes from your purchases. Training and even termination also.

e.   At Bentonville, the real center of the Universe, item managers are armed with cold hard data to force further price concessions and in many, many cases Wal-Mart will dictate a vendor’s manufacturing system and salary structure.

f.      Here’s the One That Bothers  me the most: WaL-Mart  is a major seller of firearms and ammo and if total gun control is ever mandated, Wal-Mart sales would be a great place to start looking for firearms owners.

I’ll have lots to say about Wal-Mart in a much later Post.

·       For the record: I shop at our local Wal-Mart twice a week---sometimes more.