Wal-Mart Not Doing Well

Several months ago I recollect blogging about Wal-Mart, with the title being "Wal-Mart Sucks." I don't remember what it was at the time that had me thinking that.

But I do remember what it is that has me thinking that lately.

A couple years ago I read Thomas Friedman's The Earth is Flat. The book is pretty much all about globalization and the new world economy. Friedman uses what he portrays as the wonder that is Wal-Mart as being a good example.

Friedman basically said something like when a bag of popcorn gets sold at any random Wal-Mart that information is sent along the supply line instantly, so that Wal-Mart can closely control its inventory.

Well. Yesterday I visited one of my nearby Wal-Marts because I wanted popcorn, among a few other things. Wal-Mart was out of the popcorn I wanted. This is not the first time. Lately I've noticed many shelves in Wal-Mart having missing items. A few weeks ago there were no large cans of tomato sauce. That was at the Dallas Cowboy Super Wal-Mart. That Wal-Mart was also out of the popcorn I wanted that day.

My closest Wal-Mart is a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market. They are small grocery store type Wal-Marts. The self checkouts are often not working. Lately the store has been a mess with shelves missing a lot of items. A few days ago I was in there and the canned vegetable area looked like half the cans were missing. Most of the grocery carts have wobbly wheel issues.

And then today, the Wal-Mart visit that prompted this particularly blogging incident. I'd been hiking at Tandy Hills Park. That is close to what is known as the Beach Street Super Wal-Mart. It's a nice looking one. I was only getting a few things. I wanted a Texas Sweet Onion. The Super Wal-Mart had none. So I got a White Onion instead. I wanted to get 93/7 turkey burger to make spaghetti sauce tomorrow. They were out of it and only had 2 packages of the breakfast sausage version and 4 of the higher fat 85/15 version. So, 2 of the 5 items that I wanted, Wal-Mart did not have in stock. But I was able to get the popcorn that I wanted yesterday.

I know what you're thinking. As in quit going to Wal-Mart.

Well, it ain't like I've got a lot of good choices here. The grocery store situation here in North Texas is not what you people in other parts of the country, particularly the west coast, are used to.

I like Sprouts, but the closest one is 20 miles away. Central Market and Whole Foods are good, but also too far from here.

I've got an Albertsons across the street. In Washington Albertsons was at the bottom rung of the grocery store ladder. Here it's seen as a good grocery store. Also within walking distance is a Krogers. I've had more price errors, always in Kroger's favor, than any store I've ever been in. I've had incidents where I'm only getting 5 items and 2 of them will scan with an incorrect price.

Wal-Mart rarely has price mistakes and its usually cheaper than I expected. Maybe that's why I go to Wal-Mart. Just last week I bought apricot jam thinking it was $1.68 and it rung up at $1.18.