Neither of the Wal-Marts that I have visited sells groceries so I have no frame of reference on that. I do know, though, from having owned shares of grocery chains, that the profit margin on grocery items is tiny. A Wal-Mart large enough for a grocery might have enough reductions in cost both in employees and volume buying from the lowest cost sellers to sell for significantly less, but 25% reduction on products that have a typical profit margin of 3% seems a stretch, intuitively.
As we have already seen, the $2300 figure was based on food items. The Wal-Mart ad did not make that distinction. I had in mind hair dryers, pens, batteries, and bath towels, not Rice Crispies.
The two Wal-Marts that I have shopped (Tucson AZ and Manassas VA) are filled with Mexicans and geezers, none of whom look like they have enough resources to spend $2300 a year, let alone save that much. I know that the family members with whom I've shopped there don't have that kind of spending money. Not even close. Perhaps there's a lot of variation in clientele from store to store.
(I have almost no need to buy "stuff" but just recently purchased a hand electric mixer for nine bucks at Target. I was stunned. It wasn't even a special, just a regular price. At that price you can practically use it once and throw it away. Wonder how much less it might have been at Wal-Mart. <g>) |
