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Walmart's CEO talked about this a few years ago—how crowded their stores get around midnight on the last day of the month, because that's when people's payments
by gruseom 14y ago
Walmart's CEO talked about this a few years ago—how crowded their stores get around midnight on the last day of the month, because that's when people's payments clear:
about 11 p.m., customers start to come in and shop, fill their grocery basket with basic items, baby formula, milk, bread, eggs, and continue to shop and mill about the store until midnight, when electronic — government electronic benefits cards get activated and then the checkout starts and occurs. And our sales for those first few hours on the first of the month are substantially and significantly higher. And if you really think about it, the only reason somebody gets out in the middle of the night and buys baby formula is that they need it, and they’ve been waiting for it. Otherwise, we are open 24 hours — come at 5 a.m., come at 7 a.m., come at 10 a.m. But if you are there at midnight, you are there for a reason.
That stuck in my mind. It's a poignant image.
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2010/09/20/watching-walmart-at-midnight/ http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2010/09/20/watching-walmart-a...
- dopamean 14y agoI worked at WalMart for 3 years. I worked overnight doing inventory management and I saw exactly what the CEO described. One thing I noticed that he didn't mention is that a large number of the people I worked with were part of that group of people waiting at midnight to buy their baby formula. I always felt like the wages at our store were subsidized by the government. All of the people I talking about worked full time. They all had ungodly sums come out of their paycheque every two weeks to pay for health insurance (from what I understand it was not a great plan either). I don't really know what kind of point I'm trying to make here. On one hand it's nice that there are a lot of cheap options at WalMart for people on small budgets. On the other hand, it's sad that so many WalMart employees (in my own experience) are the ones who so badly needing to take advantage of those prices.
- dantheman 14y agoI don't think it's just walmart employees that need those prices, it's anyone working that type of job. Most employees at small businesses doing the same work earn the same or less than a walmart employee.
- dopamean 14y agoI didn't mean to imply that I think it's only WalMart employees that need cheap goods. I was simply trying to comment on the irony of that.
- gruseom 14y agoThat is why I like Costco better: the people who work there don't seem as downtrodden. Either I've been fooled by corporate propaganda or they really have figured out a way to make money, lower prices, and treat people relatively well. Walmarts feel like places of despair to me and Costcos like places of hope. I know how ludicrous that sounds, but the feeling is real. I often chat with workers at checkout counters to gut-test my theory, and it seems to hold up, though it could all just be confirmation bias. Edit: there's one big difference, though. To shop at Costco you have to buy twice as much (plus typically pay membership fees). That step could be too steep for the people most living hand-to-mouth, even though it would save them money within weeks. So there could be sample bias here too.
- protomyth 14y agoThe membership is the too steep part for Costco.
- malandrew 14y agoIt would be nice if CostCo allowed people of low income to apply for a financial aid in the form of free membership if their income was low enough. It's unfortunate that only the people with greater purchasing power get access to the lowest cost per item unit.
- nijk 14y agoOr even a monthly installment.
- rogerbinns 14y ago> ... free membership The membership is the per member profit. Costco doesn't mark up items more than 14%. In some states they aren't allowed to require membership to access the pharmacy. If what you proposed was workable, I'd expect groups of people in an area to band together or have a middleman in order to only have one membership and break up bulk items. (And technically there is such a middleman doing their best to lower prices - they are called Walmart.) > ... greater purchasing power get access to the lowest cost ... Same thing happens with the US health system - the uninsured pay the most for exactly the same procedures at the same place. At least in the case of Costco it is economically sensible because buyers purchase a bigger volume and the store has greater throughput. (Costco typically has 4,000 SKUs per store while a normal supermarket will be around 16,000.)
- incision 14y agoThat was me growing up. I'd go out since my mother had to get up at 5:00. That card allowed us to scrape by during some very rough times. I hate to think where we'd have ended up without it. I'm glad to see a little sympathetic light being shown on this. It always irritates me a bit to hear these programs and the people they help derided politically. Today, I pay far more in taxes each month than my entire family consumed in such benefits each year growing up.