Walmart dynamic pricing, its coming!!

[barkley]

Wow! That is decent money and should really lead to a better store experience for us customers...yet every single Walmart I have been in has been a mess - cluttered aisles, long lines, very unhelpful employees if, God forbid, you ever ask a question or do a return...yikes!

It very much depends on the Walmart. The one closest to me now is pretty decent--helpful staff, pretty clean, etc. The one on the other side of town is sketchier. The Walmarts where I've lived have always been pleasant places to shop. That said, I went to one in Philadelphia that was absolutely terrible.

interesting. i have to assume that one of the factors on a manager's base salary is the prevailing wages in a given area. that said-we live near a state line and there is a MARKED difference between the walmarts in one state vs. the other. hands down the better stocked, cleaner, better customer service is in the state adjacent to us. one would assume that this could be an indicator of better skilled and more experienced (= better paid) management. if prevailing wage is used though i can't imagine it's the case b/c our minimum wage is a full $9.03 per hour HIGHER. maybe it's just luck of the draw (or a regional manager) that drives the upkeep and quality of particular area's stores.

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

What kills me is that the same people who want stores or restaurants to pay $20 an hour for unskilled labor, then have a fit when the companies have to raise prices. The only entity that can to operate hemorrhaging millions of dollars is our federal government. Private enterprises need to make a profit to supply jobs and services.

I don't hear the people asking for $20/hour pay "having a fit" when prices increase.

That being said, there is a pretty good argument that Wal-Mart could pay more without raising prices found by looking at their earnings report:
https://corporate.walmart.com/news/2024/05/16/walmart-releases-q1-fy25-earnings

The difference is with Amazon you are buying online and paying the price shown. WIth Walmart you may be paying a different price at checkout than it was at the time you picked the item up off the shelf.

That is a hypothetical that is not based in anything they're proposing at this time.

interesting. i have to assume that one of the factors on a manager's base salary is the prevailing wages in a given area. that said-we live near a state line and there is a MARKED difference between the walmarts in one state vs. the other. hands down the better stocked, cleaner, better customer service is in the state adjacent to us. one would assume that this could be an indicator of better skilled and more experienced (= better paid) management. if prevailing wage is used though i can't imagine it's the case b/c our minimum wage is a full $9.03 per hour HIGHER. maybe it's just luck of the draw (or a regional manager) that drives the upkeep and quality of particular area's stores.

Is the staffing level the same? I could see them cutting staff at the higher paid store due to the added expense.

 

[barkley]

I don't hear the people asking for $20/hour pay "having a fit" when prices increase.

That being said, there is a pretty good argument that Wal-Mart could pay more without raising prices found by looking at their earnings report:
https://corporate.walmart.com/news/2024/05/16/walmart-releases-q1-fy25-earnings

That is a hypothetical that is not based in anything they're proposing at this time.

Is the staffing level the same? I could see them cutting staff at the higher paid store due to the added expense.

i would say that staffing is probably about the same at all the locations. big difference would be that it seems the majority of staff at the ones in my state are doing the personal shopping orders/very few are cashiers at check out. the stores in the adjacent state seem to have more cashier manned registers and floor staff doing the stocking and such.

 

[SL6827]

Read an article about Target announcing that they were going to be dimming thier lights and raising their temps this summer in order to pocket more coin. Wonder why they just don't cut off the air completely.

 

[mom2rtk]

Read an article about Target announcing that they were going to be dimming thier lights and raising their temps this summer in order to pocket more coin. Wonder why they just don't cut off the air completely.

Oh yes, I hear making shoppers uncomfortable is a great way to encourage hanging around shopping for more stuff.

 

[SL6827]

Oh yes, I hear making shoppers uncomfortable is a great way to encourage hanging around shopping for more stuff.

I know.

 

[RivShore]

Read an article about Target announcing that they were going to be dimming thier lights and raising their temps this summer in order to pocket more coin. Wonder why they just don't cut off the air completely.

Hey now, some of that coin might be yours. If you invest in any broad S&P 500 type fund, you own Target. If you have a pension, chances are it owns Target too. That sweat to shop may earn you a few extra cents! LOL

 

[MrsPete]

I saw this at Walmart earlier this week! They are, indeed, switching the paper prices on the shelf to little digital price markers; it wasn't all over the store -- just in a couple aisles. I assume it takes a while to get it all done.

HOWEVER, I see no evidence that they plan to switch the prices willy-nilly. Isn't this the same as when gas stations started using digital signs or when stores stopped physically putting a sticker on every can /started using bar codes and prices on the shelf?

What kills me is that the same people who want stores or restaurants to pay $20 an hour for unskilled labor, then have a fit when the companies have to raise prices.

That's a complete lack of understanding of business. If costs go up, prices must go up.

But most people nowadays don’t want to start out at the bottom. They think they will earn $100,000 right from the start without ever working the crappy hours and doing the grunt work.

In all fairness, I taught school for 30 years, and kids thought this when I was a new teacher. Back then kids all thought they'd become star football players or rock stars. Now they all want to be Influencers.

Oh yes, I hear making shoppers uncomfortable is a great way to encourage hanging around shopping for more stuff.

That's the McDonald's theory: Red and Yellow make you slightly uncomfortable. And they have hard seats. This all encourages you to get in, buy food, eat fast and get out.

 

[QueenIsabella]

This is what I don't get--businesses have had different prices throughout the day for decades. Think movie matinees, Happy Hour drink specials, or Early Bird dining. These thing shave been around forever. But--slap a catchy name like "dynamic pricing" on the practice, and all of a sudden, Wendy's or Walmart or whoever are capitalist pigs who are trying to take advantage of the little guy. And the reality is, especially on the budget board, a lot of us play their game--see the early movie, eat the early dinner, grab a plate of apps during happy hour. So, forgive me for not buying into the faux outrage.

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

Read an article about Target announcing that they were going to be dimming thier lights and raising their temps this summer in order to pocket more coin. Wonder why they just don't cut off the air completely.

Another pot stirring post. It’s to conserve energy. Conspiracy theorists are saying it is to make more money. Lots of companies are finding ways to use less energy, especially with less people in office complexes and going in to physical stores.

 

[mom2rtk]

Another pot stirring post. It’s to conserve energy. Conspiracy theorists are saying it is to make more money. Lots of companies are finding ways to use less energy, especially with less people in office complexes and going in to physical stores.

Why would that be a conspiracy theory? Is it some deep dark secret that companies look for ways to reduce overhead in a tough economy? I still think it will hurt them more than it helps, but time will tell.

 

[RivShore]

That's a complete lack of understanding of business. If costs go up, prices must go up.

BUT GREED GREED GREED LOLOLOLOL

 

[barkley]

Another pot stirring post. It’s to conserve energy. Conspiracy theorists are saying it is to make more money. Lots of companies are finding ways to use less energy, especially with less people in office complexes and going in to physical stores.

i don't know how much energy it saves but a handful of stores near us have motion detectors on their freezer compartments so the interior lights do not run all day and only activate when someone steps in proximity to an individual compartment.

back to walmart-had something happen today for the first time with them. did an online order for pickup and when i received the notification that an item was not available i was offered the option to have it shipped to my home.......for free. never had them offer that before.

 

[tvguy]

i don't know how much energy it saves but a handful of stores near us have motion detectors on their freezer compartments so the interior lights do not run all day and only activate when someone steps in proximity to an individual compartment.

back to walmart-had something happen today for the first time with them. did an online order for pickup and when i received the notification that an item was not available i was offered the option to have it shipped to my home.......for free. never had them offer that before.

Yes, all the stores here have the motion detectors on the freezers. And most stores (including Walmart) have huge skylights to help reduce the need for lighting during daylight hours.

 

[tvguy]

Why would that be a conspiracy theory? Is it some deep dark secret that companies look for ways to reduce overhead in a tough economy? I still think it will hurt them more than it helps, but time will tell.

That was my experience at the last company I worked for, reducing costs ended up with them losing money. And we had different owners and managers who repeated the same mistakes.
First, they institute a hiring freeze. But they are already at minimum staffing, so they save money on benefits, but overtime soars and in this case, by more than they saved on benefits.
Then they do furloughs. Which forces managers to spent a lot of time juggling schedules. You can't pay overtime to cover for a furloughed employee, but you can pay overtime to cover a vacant position. For six months of 2009 with furloughs, I worked 4 days one week, 6 the next for 6 months. So with time and a half for the 6th day in the second week, my paychecks were larger. Corporate big wig later admitted their payroll costs went UP because of the furlough. You either do a hiring freeze, OR furloughs, not BOTH.
And the big disaster, was a 5% pay cut (they called it a market adjustment) for everyone. Except in our industry, many people are working under personal service contracts with salary set. Oh, and if you earned less than $30,000 a year , you were exempt from the pay cut. Very few people actually saw their pay cut.
And all these issues put them in the position that they didn't enough people to do commercial production, which they made money because they couldn't do the work.

 

[georgina]

I rarely shop at Walmart, but I am a Target regular. I find it hard to believe people will stop shopping there if the temperature is a few degrees higher inside. Most stores are too cold in the summer, IMO.

 

[Smugpugmug]

I rarely shop at Walmart, but I am a Target regular. I find it hard to believe people will stop shopping there if the temperature is a few degrees higher inside. Most stores are too cold in the summer, IMO.

The temperature of the store is something I don't care about but most items being locked behind a case makes me not want to shop at Target. I went about a month ago and all of the deodorant and laundry detergent was locked up and I couldn't find a simple employee to open it for me. Ended up not buying those items as I could get them elsewhere.

 

[mom2rtk]

That's the McDonald's theory: Red and Yellow make you slightly uncomfortable. And they have hard seats. This all encourages you to get in, buy food, eat fast and get out.

Fast food restaurants are different from stores though. In a restaurant, they need to turn tables to make room for more paying customers. Once they occupy a seat, they have already made their purchases. Lingering in a store usually ends up in more sales. And the lingerer isn't taking a spot from anyone else.

 

[QueenIsabella]

i don't know how much energy it saves but a handful of stores near us have motion detectors on their freezer compartments so the interior lights do not run all day and only activate when someone steps in proximity to an individual compartment.

back to walmart-had something happen today for the first time with them. did an online order for pickup and when i received the notification that an item was not available i was offered the option to have it shipped to my home.......for free. never had them offer that before.

Several grocery stores have the motion detectors on freezers here (Publix, specifically). Our local Publix is fairly new, so it got all the energy-saving features they offer.

I, too, got a Walmart delivery--not intentional--this week, and they didn't charge for shipping. I double-checked! The two shipped items were Nutella cookies and a bag of those miniature Snickers/Milky Way, etc. (the teeny tiny ones). Both items, I've gotten at Walmart pick-up before, so I don't know why they were shipped this time--maybe they came from the "other" Walmart in town? But, neither were urgent, they're for our vacation in a couple weeks, so no way would I have paid for shipping. And my 23 or whatever other items, I picked up (except that they were out of Great Value tomato soup, I got Campbell's).

 

[barkley]

Yes, all the stores here have the motion detectors on the freezers. And most stores (including Walmart) have huge skylights to help reduce the need for lighting during daylight hours.

ours have the big skylights too but it can get kind of spooky at the one that's adjacent to both the airforce base and the international airport-you hear the rumbling, then the skylight darkens as you glance up to see the underside of a large plane.