On Friday, obscured by the dust kicked up by Amazon.com (AMZN) after reporting it would be acquiring Whole Foods Market (WFM), there was another curious (albeit much less interesting) acquisition made --discount retailer Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE:WMT) announced it would be purchasing a men's clothing brand called Bonobos for a cool $310 million.
There are some parallels to be sure. Whole Foods is a higher-end grocery, focused on a slightly more affluent customer that's willing to pay a bit of a premium to eat healthy. Bonobos is a higher-end clothier that's largely been built on great customer service and a personal touch at its boutiques.
On the flipside, there's at least one distinct difference between Amazon's purchase of Whole Foods and Wal-Mart's purchase of Bonobos. That is, Amazon can make a struggling Whole Foods work, whereas Wal-Mart is apt to screw up a Bonobos that's working just fine without it.
I fear, however, the Bonobos acquisition is a microcosm of where Wal-Mart thinks it wants to go. Let's hope it isn't.
Unfamiliar Territory
I've been firm but fair with Wal-Mart in the past.
Just a couple of weeks ago I lauded the company's effort to get more serious about its electronics opportunity, yet cautioned it wouldn't do the retailer much good if it wasn't willing to staff those areas appropriately. In 2013, I called the company out for refusing to recognize the impact repeatedly miserable shopping experiences can have on its growth. Though I didn't explicitly say as much, Wal-Mart's recent (finally) spending on e-commerce looks like it's starting to pay off, yet its previous foray into smaller-footprint stores was now clearly a mistake.
I only make the point to make clear there's no particular agenda or bias when I say that Wal-Mart has no business buying Bonobos, particularly if it's expecting
