It Is Not What Sam Envisioned But Today's Reality Demands

You only have to look at the upscale cars in the parking lots of Goodwill, Valu Village and Dollar Stores to understand a consumer's first concern....value for their buck.

March 2, 2007
It’s Not Only About Price at Wal-Mart
By MICHAEL BARBARO

For 44 years, Wal-Mart’s message was “Low prices, always.”

Then in early 2006, it invited customers to “Look beyond the basics,” and try costlier products like 500-thread count sheets.

Now, after a tumultuous year of experimentation, abrupt reversals and admissions of missteps, Wal-Mart Stores is finding its raison d’être in the middle of these two extremes: “Saving people money so they can live better lives.”

The new, and so far internal, definition of what Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, stands for will soon become a very public strategy, evident on the shelves of 4,000 stores and in advertisements seen across the country.

In their first interviews since a management shuffle last month, John Fleming, the new chief merchandising officer, and Stephen Quinn, the new chief marketing officer, said that after a year of intense research, the discount giant is seeing its 200 million customers as belonging to three groups.

There are “brand aspirationals” (people with low incomes who are obsessed with names like KitchenAid), “price-sensitive affluents” (wealthier shoppers who love deals), and “value-price shoppers” (who like low prices and cannot afford much more).

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