Competing with Wal-Mart

It's a national past time to hate Wal-Mart.

Why not? They're the big, evil company that is developing that field across the street with all of the nice trees so that they can lay-down some asphalt, throw up a couple of hundred thousand square feet of sub-par retail space, and put all those good, hardworking local folk out of a job. Fire up the picket lines Bessie, Mr Walton's coming to town! We can't have this big retailer in our back yard because Mr. Bob's Hardware store will go out of business!

Let me tell you the story of shopping for a doll-house for my daughter's birthday. My wife and I met for lunch and went to the local toy store near our office. We had a shopping list of things that we wanted to get for our daughter for her birthday. After being pleasantly greeted by the staff, we went to find the doll house. This was the big gift, and many of the smaller gifts were built around accessories for the doll-house. We were disappointed to see that the doll-house was out of stock. And due to the fact that the big Toy Fair was last week, replenishment orders are slow (as all toy dealers are putting in orders for toys this week). No problem, the manager of the store upgraded our Doll-House Townhouse to the much bigger (and 50% pricier) Doll-House Manor, for the same price as the original, cheaper Townhouse.

Let's take a look at my experience at the toy store:

• Greeted by friendly staff. Check.
• Shelves fully stocked (except for the one item I wanted!), and everything neatly presented. Check.
• An item was not in stock, so the manager gave me a nicer item for the same price. Check.
• The manager carried the big item to the cash register. Check.
• Store personnel offered to wrap our merchandise free of charge. Check.
• Since wrapping the gifts was going to take a few minutes, I went over to Target to get some things. They said "no problem! We'll hold everything for you when you get back". Check.
• We pulled up in front of store and opened car doors up. The folks are already carrying the gifts and putting them into our car. Check.

Now, let's compare this same experience with the local Wal-Mart:

• Greeted by a person that I feel really uncomfortable talking to and even making eye contact with. Check.
• Many items out of stock. Shelves in disarray. Always walking out with some sticky stuff on my shoes that feels creepy (even for me). Check.
• Item not in stock. I usually cannot find help. If I do find help, the person is an idiot and is clueless. Check.
• No one has ever asked to help with a large item at Wal-Mart. Check.
  
• Store personnel would never wrap my gifts, nor would I trust them. I doubt they could even point me the right direction of the gift wrap. Check.
• I would never, ever leave my purchased merchandise in the hands of a Wal-Mart employee why I go off and do other things. Check.
• No one has ever helped me load a large item into my car that was in the employ of Wal-Mart. Check.
• Bonus points for Wal-Mart - overweight customer wearing slinky clothes two-sizes too small so that I can belly fat with stretch marks popping out of her Spandex. Check.
• Bonus points for Wal-Mart - over-friendly customer that insists I help her find the CD of "that guy on the Home Shopping network with the guitar that sings those Mexican songs". She assures me that I know of whom she is speaking. Check.
  

There is a lesson here. If you are a mom-and-pop store, there are plenty of ways of competing with Wal-Mart. However, if your plan involves trying to price-cut Wal-Mart and provide the same shitty service you have been providing over the last 30 years, you deserve to go out of business.

Instead, you must evolve. Don't price-cut Wal-Mart -- you cannot win. However, you can win on providing better products and better service. This toy store has won me over as a customer, and I cannot wait to spend my money there again.