D Chapman

Demographic Challenges to Stifle Wal-Mart Sales

There's an awful lot of assumptions being made in this post. I don't think "low cost" is generational -- on the contrary, younger people have less money to spend and might need to be more careful about it. Especially since they can't, you know, get themselves into debt as much as they used to. As the generation ages, it will get more money but will also become, by definition of the demographics which you were pointing out, less fickle, and more likely to value price as they enter into a more mature stage of their lives.


As for the low-price model, yes, it's based on a smaller variety at a consistent price, or on getting more of a basic product at a better price. The same model is followed by grocery stores, Costco, and a lot of other retailers however. Basic goods are almost always cheaper than more customized, specific ones.

It also sounds to me like the author has some level of anti-Wal-Mart bias. I'm sure there are people who refuse to shop at Wal-Mart because of their perception of the way it does business, but there are plenty more who don't care as much either way. This could affect their sales but not destroy the company, quite frankly. There will always be a market segment for Wal-Mart to go after.

By the way, even if China gets in trouble, when it comes to cheap labor and production costs, look all over the world to find that. Wal-Mart, and other companies, go where the costs are cheap to produce goods and they won't run out of countries to find that in for a very long time.