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> 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 specu

> 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.

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.