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> Walmart didn't have technology as a core competency Is this really true? Isn't the prototypical example of real world big data that Walmart learned to stock

by sbov 10y ago

> Walmart didn't have technology as a core competency Is this really true? Isn't the prototypical example of real world big data that Walmart learned to stock pop tarts before hurricanes? They also seem to have a wide range of tech related jobs at their job portal.

wyc 10y ago
I meant that historically, Walmart's money-making pursuits were not bastioned mainly on technology, but supply chain and leveraged buying positions. This does not preclude them from having highly-competent specialists (e.g., technologists) to support these operations. For example, Google has a stellar legal team, but is still an advertisement technology company. In fact, I think that Walmart had a lot to do with the standardization of UPC codes, which is a technological innovation for sure. Depending on your definition, everything could be a technology play, which makes for a far less useful term.
- webmaven 10y ago
  Supply chains are a set of (evolving) technologies, few more so than Walmart's.
muninn_ 10y ago
Yes but that is more so relying on off-the-shelf software versus building it yourself. A technology company will be building the tools, not exclusively buying them. Wal-Mary's core competency has been supply chain and apparently operations research.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
dbcurtis 10y ago
Walmart clearly knows how to leverage technology. Their business is built around using technology to lower costs and manage the flow of inventory. Walmart has always relied very heavily on IT, and has been a driver of retail IT innovation. My take is that even a very seasoned technology team with a deep bench can occasionally miss the beginning of something important, and be forced to catch up. 1) Don't let that be you. 2) Admit it, someday it will be you, so don't be so arrogant that you can't start executing plan B.
- qmarchi 10y ago
  Full Disclosure: I work at Wally World Wal-Mart does use IT to improve the flow of inventory, but also to improve our interactions with shoppers, employees, and the communities that the stores are based in. We recently just had an internal hackathon, of which there was everything from AI to complete redesigns of our business model. I guarantee that one of those will become a full project withing the walls. Insane Ideas. Save Money. Live Better
  - burntrelish1273 10y ago
    Curious: WalMart proper or WalMart Labs? Unsolicited, free-to-steal idea dept.: I think there's a non-zero market (in some markets) to charge/invite customers to shop outside NBH / even shutdown 24/7 store temporarily for the right $$$$. I, for one, hate shopping with huge, slow crowds... I'll go somewhere else and/or only go during low-traffic hours. Btw, Costco (and what was PriceClub) used to do this (eg early hours) for commercial and executive customers... (oddly, IDKW I haven't downgraded to Basic given there's almost no advantage to Executive these days.) Apple, although upmarket extreme, also does this for shopping and training. Also, wish large chains would trial Amazon Go-style cashierless checkout, but perhaps adding a paper receipt for legacy interop/loss prevention/audit. All kinds of great, reusable data could be had with ML/CV with real-time, total product awareness. Lots-and-lots of cameras, networking and datacenter floorspace... but likely worth the investment. AI tallying up what was taken as-it-goes saves a great deal of human effort and customer time, basically an inevitable modality. EDIT: Maybe in the future, we won't even need stores when/if drones can bring things around to try out/handle returns/prevent loss. Can picture drones from multiple vendors jostling to sell competing product, getting angry with each other and undercutting pricing of each other in real-time. Perhaps even drones carrying flowers / selling "Rolex'es" on a train.
    - pxeboot 10y ago
      I would gladly pay $500-$1,000/year for a dedicated parking area and access to a no-wait checkout lane at Costco. Could be part of a 'Signature' membership or something.
Consultant32452 10y ago
When I want to buy something my first thought is to check Amazon.com. Walmart wants me to think of Walmart.com first. That's what I believe this purchase was all about.
jvehent 10y ago
The story I heard from my data warehouse professor in college was that Walmart analyzed receipts of purchases made on saturdays, and noticed a strange correlation between diapers and cases of beer. A deeper analysis showed that fathers where being tasked with the replenishing of the diapers stock on weekends, and made a stop by the beer section on the way. Following this, Walmart put diapers and beer close the each other, and sales skyrocketed. It's probably not the real story, but it was a memorable enough introduction to get a bunch of sleepy students to learn what normal forms were all about.
hackuser 10y ago
> Isn't the prototypical example of real world big data that Walmart learned to stock pop tarts before hurricanes? I've wondered about that too. My very speculative hypothesis: Walmart's tech and operations are designed for the 'wrong' model: * Walmart: Regional warehouses (do they use them?). Inventory at and distribution to 10,000 retail stores. Brick-and-mortar retail sales operations (including store location, greeters, placement on shelves, etc.). Appropriate partnering and other arrangements such as rack jobbing. * Amazon: Inventory at and distribution to a few massive regional warehouses. Web-based retail sales operations. Appropriate partnering arrangements such as web referrals, drop shipping, etc. Distribution one item at a time to customers' homes and businesses. The tech that runs Walmart seems like it wouldn't work for Amazon. Think of just distribution and inventory: Walmart ships items in bulk to stores (i.e., essentially regional warehouses where the consumers come and pick from the shelves); Amazon ships items one at a time to consumers.
- webmaven 10y ago
  Walmart does stuff that is quite a bit more sophisticated than you imply, such as having quite a lot of inventory already in motion on trucks ready to be re-routed to where it is needed. It is my understanding that Amazon adopted some similar approaches to make sure it's regional warehouses remain stocked. For that matter, Walmart certainly does ship in bulk (as in, whole trucks), but the contents of those trucks aren't measured only in whole pallets of items, but also smaller replacement inventory amounts (ie. when an item is rung up on the register, the system increments by one the amount going out on the next shipment to that store, which might be the next day, not to mention the amount being re-ordered from the supplier, etc.). Not to mention that Walmart does handle a lot ofbretail e-commerce purchases that are shipped to individuals. Oh, and Amazon at one point was poaching a lot of Walmart's top folks, so there was obviously something they wanted to learn: https://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-com-wal-mart-settle-lawsuit/ https://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-com-wal-mart-settle-lawsuit... (Wow, has it really been 19 years? Damn.) Anyway, the comparisons between the two companies are far from straightforward.
edblarney 10y ago
"Walmart didn't have technology as a core competency" Wallmart has absolutely amazing tech as a 'core competency'. You don't deliver more goods than anyone on planet earth without this. But it was ops-ish. Not 'e-commerce-ish'. Also - there is no 'acquihire' for billions. Surely some people are worth a lot, but even if he was worth that much, it's not within Wallmart DNA to do that. Jet.com is a 'working infrastructure of direct e-commerce' that Wallmart surely sees as the future, and what is missing from their tech. Imagine if they could graft Jet ops, into the Wallmart beast - it would make them Wallmart + Amazon type thing. Which makes sense, even at high valuations. Wallmart business is so massive, that if anything can help them push out into more e-commerce domain, it's worth it. The surplus in valuation is due to strategic alignment, not so much some 'op knowledge' that will increment revenues by x%. Amazon is an existential threat to Wallmart, and the 'game is on' to win people buying online, so this was a weapon they bought.
saosebastiao 10y ago
As someone who worked in Amazon's supply chain, I'd have to say that WalMart anecdotally smashed us with their planning and buying technology. They had an entire system of weather-based inventory adjustments. I've heard stories of inventory being pulled off of shelves in the midwest to reroute to Florida a week in advance of a hurricane, well before the local authorities had even issuing weather alerts. I'm talking batteries, water, prepackaged foods, etc. Their planning systems are pretty magnificent. The whole customer experience for Amazon so much better though. It's definitely not perfect, but we went through a lot of trouble to be as accurate and upfront about delivery expectations, prices, alternative products, accurate reviews, etc. Walmart still has a ways to catch up on the customer side.
- trome 10y ago
  Walmart fundamentally doesn't give a crap about the customer, and it shows. They know that at 2am, they are the only place your gonna be able to buy bedding, a cable modem, etc. and thus will staff the front end with 1 cashier to deal with a line of 20+ customers. Returns are even worse, they will not comply with the store policy they have clearly printed on the signage behind them (eg: Store credit for an airbed that was defective and brought back the same day). That being said, Amazon is sitting much worse with me than Walmart right now, over the past year I've had issues with 1/3rd of the products I've ordered off Amazon (bad mouse, Evo+ card performing at 6MB/s when rated for 25MB/s), and I'd never shop at any of the Amazon brick & mortar stores going up in Ballard or other parts of the city due to this. Amazon would likely sell me e.coli covered veggies at their current success rate.
bdcravens 10y ago
They were innovating from their earliest days (earliest example I remember were the "break-away" pricing labels to resist tag switching) They were one of their first big enterprises to embrace node.js, contributing in open source, and leveraging it to handle Black Friday traffic. IMO the online grocery shopping experience is better than Instacart (it's a matter of when, not if, they add home delivery to pickup) I think the idea that they aren't a technology company is the result of cognitive dissonance between stores and the back-office, that WalMart is the culture that People of WalMart mocks, a bunch of redneck bumpkins from red states.

by sbov 10y ago

wyc 10y ago

I meant that historically, Walmart's money-making pursuits were not bastioned mainly on technology, but supply chain and leveraged buying positions. This does not preclude them from having highly-competent specialists (e.g., technologists) to support these operations. For example, Google has a stellar legal team, but is still an advertisement technology company. In fact, I think that Walmart had a lot to do with the standardization of UPC codes, which is a technological innovation for sure. Depending on your definition, everything could be a technology play, which makes for a far less useful term.

webmaven 10y ago
Supply chains are a set of (evolving) technologies, few more so than Walmart's.

muninn_ 10y ago

Yes but that is more so relying on off-the-shelf software versus building it yourself. A technology company will be building the tools, not exclusively buying them. Wal-Mary's core competency has been supply chain and apparently operations research.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

dbcurtis 10y ago

Walmart clearly knows how to leverage technology. Their business is built around using technology to lower costs and manage the flow of inventory. Walmart has always relied very heavily on IT, and has been a driver of retail IT innovation. My take is that even a very seasoned technology team with a deep bench can occasionally miss the beginning of something important, and be forced to catch up. 1) Don't let that be you. 2) Admit it, someday it will be you, so don't be so arrogant that you can't start executing plan B.

qmarchi 10y ago
Full Disclosure: I work at Wally World Wal-Mart does use IT to improve the flow of inventory, but also to improve our interactions with shoppers, employees, and the communities that the stores are based in. We recently just had an internal hackathon, of which there was everything from AI to complete redesigns of our business model. I guarantee that one of those will become a full project withing the walls. Insane Ideas. Save Money. Live Better
- burntrelish1273 10y ago
  Curious: WalMart proper or WalMart Labs? Unsolicited, free-to-steal idea dept.: I think there's a non-zero market (in some markets) to charge/invite customers to shop outside NBH / even shutdown 24/7 store temporarily for the right $$$$. I, for one, hate shopping with huge, slow crowds... I'll go somewhere else and/or only go during low-traffic hours. Btw, Costco (and what was PriceClub) used to do this (eg early hours) for commercial and executive customers... (oddly, IDKW I haven't downgraded to Basic given there's almost no advantage to Executive these days.) Apple, although upmarket extreme, also does this for shopping and training. Also, wish large chains would trial Amazon Go-style cashierless checkout, but perhaps adding a paper receipt for legacy interop/loss prevention/audit. All kinds of great, reusable data could be had with ML/CV with real-time, total product awareness. Lots-and-lots of cameras, networking and datacenter floorspace... but likely worth the investment. AI tallying up what was taken as-it-goes saves a great deal of human effort and customer time, basically an inevitable modality. EDIT: Maybe in the future, we won't even need stores when/if drones can bring things around to try out/handle returns/prevent loss. Can picture drones from multiple vendors jostling to sell competing product, getting angry with each other and undercutting pricing of each other in real-time. Perhaps even drones carrying flowers / selling "Rolex'es" on a train.
  - pxeboot 10y ago
    I would gladly pay $500-$1,000/year for a dedicated parking area and access to a no-wait checkout lane at Costco. Could be part of a 'Signature' membership or something.

Consultant32452 10y ago

When I want to buy something my first thought is to check Amazon.com. Walmart wants me to think of Walmart.com first. That's what I believe this purchase was all about.

jvehent 10y ago

The story I heard from my data warehouse professor in college was that Walmart analyzed receipts of purchases made on saturdays, and noticed a strange correlation between diapers and cases of beer. A deeper analysis showed that fathers where being tasked with the replenishing of the diapers stock on weekends, and made a stop by the beer section on the way. Following this, Walmart put diapers and beer close the each other, and sales skyrocketed. It's probably not the real story, but it was a memorable enough introduction to get a bunch of sleepy students to learn what normal forms were all about.

hackuser 10y ago

> Isn't the prototypical example of real world big data that Walmart learned to stock pop tarts before hurricanes? I've wondered about that too. My very speculative hypothesis: Walmart's tech and operations are designed for the 'wrong' model: * Walmart: Regional warehouses (do they use them?). Inventory at and distribution to 10,000 retail stores. Brick-and-mortar retail sales operations (including store location, greeters, placement on shelves, etc.). Appropriate partnering and other arrangements such as rack jobbing. * Amazon: Inventory at and distribution to a few massive regional warehouses. Web-based retail sales operations. Appropriate partnering arrangements such as web referrals, drop shipping, etc. Distribution one item at a time to customers' homes and businesses. The tech that runs Walmart seems like it wouldn't work for Amazon. Think of just distribution and inventory: Walmart ships items in bulk to stores (i.e., essentially regional warehouses where the consumers come and pick from the shelves); Amazon ships items one at a time to consumers.

webmaven 10y ago
Walmart does stuff that is quite a bit more sophisticated than you imply, such as having quite a lot of inventory already in motion on trucks ready to be re-routed to where it is needed. It is my understanding that Amazon adopted some similar approaches to make sure it's regional warehouses remain stocked. For that matter, Walmart certainly does ship in bulk (as in, whole trucks), but the contents of those trucks aren't measured only in whole pallets of items, but also smaller replacement inventory amounts (ie. when an item is rung up on the register, the system increments by one the amount going out on the next shipment to that store, which might be the next day, not to mention the amount being re-ordered from the supplier, etc.). Not to mention that Walmart does handle a lot ofbretail e-commerce purchases that are shipped to individuals. Oh, and Amazon at one point was poaching a lot of Walmart's top folks, so there was obviously something they wanted to learn: https://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-com-wal-mart-settle-lawsuit/ https://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-com-wal-mart-settle-lawsuit... (Wow, has it really been 19 years? Damn.) Anyway, the comparisons between the two companies are far from straightforward.

edblarney 10y ago

"Walmart didn't have technology as a core competency" Wallmart has absolutely amazing tech as a 'core competency'. You don't deliver more goods than anyone on planet earth without this. But it was ops-ish. Not 'e-commerce-ish'. Also - there is no 'acquihire' for billions. Surely some people are worth a lot, but even if he was worth that much, it's not within Wallmart DNA to do that. Jet.com is a 'working infrastructure of direct e-commerce' that Wallmart surely sees as the future, and what is missing from their tech. Imagine if they could graft Jet ops, into the Wallmart beast - it would make them Wallmart + Amazon type thing. Which makes sense, even at high valuations. Wallmart business is so massive, that if anything can help them push out into more e-commerce domain, it's worth it. The surplus in valuation is due to strategic alignment, not so much some 'op knowledge' that will increment revenues by x%. Amazon is an existential threat to Wallmart, and the 'game is on' to win people buying online, so this was a weapon they bought.

saosebastiao 10y ago

As someone who worked in Amazon's supply chain, I'd have to say that WalMart anecdotally smashed us with their planning and buying technology. They had an entire system of weather-based inventory adjustments. I've heard stories of inventory being pulled off of shelves in the midwest to reroute to Florida a week in advance of a hurricane, well before the local authorities had even issuing weather alerts. I'm talking batteries, water, prepackaged foods, etc. Their planning systems are pretty magnificent. The whole customer experience for Amazon so much better though. It's definitely not perfect, but we went through a lot of trouble to be as accurate and upfront about delivery expectations, prices, alternative products, accurate reviews, etc. Walmart still has a ways to catch up on the customer side.

trome 10y ago
Walmart fundamentally doesn't give a crap about the customer, and it shows. They know that at 2am, they are the only place your gonna be able to buy bedding, a cable modem, etc. and thus will staff the front end with 1 cashier to deal with a line of 20+ customers. Returns are even worse, they will not comply with the store policy they have clearly printed on the signage behind them (eg: Store credit for an airbed that was defective and brought back the same day). That being said, Amazon is sitting much worse with me than Walmart right now, over the past year I've had issues with 1/3rd of the products I've ordered off Amazon (bad mouse, Evo+ card performing at 6MB/s when rated for 25MB/s), and I'd never shop at any of the Amazon brick & mortar stores going up in Ballard or other parts of the city due to this. Amazon would likely sell me e.coli covered veggies at their current success rate.

bdcravens 10y ago

They were innovating from their earliest days (earliest example I remember were the "break-away" pricing labels to resist tag switching) They were one of their first big enterprises to embrace node.js, contributing in open source, and leveraging it to handle Black Friday traffic. IMO the online grocery shopping experience is better than Instacart (it's a matter of when, not if, they add home delivery to pickup) I think the idea that they aren't a technology company is the result of cognitive dissonance between stores and the back-office, that WalMart is the culture that People of WalMart mocks, a bunch of redneck bumpkins from red states.