I guess Walmart thinks we are a bunch of idiots.

Absolutely!

I would like to buy local! That would be wonderful! But I'll be durned if I'm going to go hungry just so I can support the locals. Plus I would be unable to donate (goods, not money) to needy families and the local homeless shelter.

What I do is support local as much as possible, but I have no choice but to take advantage of deals where I can find them.

True. I hate Walmart with a passion. Fortunately better deals are to be found elsewhere (for the most part).

I use Walmart for 2 reasons:

1). To get things there that can't be obtained elsewhere.

2). To use my high dollar coupons there for getting free stuff that I can't do elsewhere.

(Ok, I'm sure some people get sick of my coupon posts, but I can't resist).

Very, very typical of my WM receipts:

$31.67 before coupons, 95¢ after


$39.55 before coupons, $1.73 after


All those free items wouldn't have been free elsewhere. For example, the mayo was $1.97 at wm, about $4 everywhere else. So I used my $2 mayo coupons there to get it free, where I would have had to pay about $2 each after coupons anywhere else. I opt for free whenever possible.

But most deals are better at other stores, where I can stack deals. Walmart has no rewards program of any kind whatsoever, so you can't shop cheaply there for most stuff if you are deal-seeking.

I NEVER do that.

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Dont know about your Wallyworld, but not huge amount organic at mine. Some stuff labeled organic, but its the kind of organic from big biz or from overseas so in reality not so organic. Wally never asked my opinion on anything.

And deny it all you want it still all about what they can sell you the consumer at highest profit, not what you the consumer needs or wants.

If retailing was just about best fulfilling the consumers needs at the lowest possible markup, then we wouldnt have advertising and fancy labels and fancy store displays. We'd end up with all grocery stores being much like Aldis which doesnt regularly stock any name brand anything, they only have name brands when they get a special puchase.

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"What would you do with a brain if you had one?" -Dorothy

"Well, then ignore what I have to say and go with what works for you." -Eliot Coleman

The thing with coupons and other promotional deals is that is far lower than the actual cost of the food. Thus if significant numbers of people did what you do, the coupons and promotions would be axed very fast.

Its like the rebates on electronics, they are counting on few people following through. Its an advertising gimmick.

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"What would you do with a brain if you had one?" -Dorothy

"Well, then ignore what I have to say and go with what works for you." -Eliot Coleman

We talk about that at the coupon forums, but actually have little to worry about it.

Every time there's a news segment about extreme couponing, scads of new people show up at the coupon forums. It's hard not to laugh when a newbie makes a first post like this:

"I want to get hundreds of dollars worth of groceries for free, can someone tell me how?"



The fact is, you have to have a certain mindset, it takes months to really get it figured out, you have to be extraordinarily organized, and you have to have a extraordinarily calculating, compartmentalized mind.

99% of people who try it give up pretty quickly either because they don't have the mental capacity to learn it or they don't have enough patience to stick with it.

Ok, back to the regularly scheduled topic.

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Mine has much more than they did before. AAMOF, I saw they now have organic red potatoes, $3.70 for 3 pounds ($3 for 5 pounds of non-organic).


Maybe you should shop there more. It seems like every third time I buy something the receipt has a section on it with a website and password to take a survey and give your opinion. Heck they even give you the chance to win a $1,000 gift card.


Can you please tell me how I can get people to buy something they neither need nor want? I've got all kinds of things I'm willing to sell if people will buy them; deer flies, sand burs, brush. AFAIK, only the government can make someone pay for something they neither want nor need.

Actually WM uses the low profit-high volume plan. If you can sell 1,000,000 of an item for $1 profit per item you make more money than if you only sell 10,000 at $2 profit per.

Its also one of the reasons M&P stores will never be able to compete with WM on price alone. A small store can not make it on such a low mark up per item. Neither can it get the deals from the manufactures because it cost the manufactures less to send 5,000 items to one buyer than sending 100 items to 50 different buyers.


Retailing is about selling your product. In some cases you use fancy labels, fancy store displays and the like. In others you don't. It depends on what you are trying to sell and to whom. This is why you have so many different stores. I have used the different gun stores selling the same weapon for different prices. One uses low prices to bring in buyers, the other uses bells and whistles.

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Remember, when seconds count. . .
the police are just MINUTES away!

Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. . .Davy Crockett

and etc etc the rest of the argument, I'm not going to quote all that.

But I was reminded of this topic re: marketing when I stumbled across this wikipedia entry during a search:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jell-O

Jell-O remained a minor success until 1904, when Genesee Pure Food Company sent enormous numbers of salesmen out into the field to distribute free Jell-O cookbooks, a pioneering marketing tactic at the time.

Actually, I think that was a rather clever marketing tactic. It didn't put pressure on the consumer or retailer, but it accomplished what they set out to do.

My, how times have changed.

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Heavily invested in Wallyworld stock?




Boy you must live way out in the boonies without access to modern media. Do you send your posts in with carrier pigeon? Marketing stuff to people that they neither need nor really want has progressed throughout most of the 20th century until people now days salivate when anybody shows them something new and shiney on the tv. Very few people actually needed Henry Fords Model T.

This paragraph answers your previous confusion about manufacturers/retailers selling people lots of shiney stuff they dont need. See I knew you would get it eventually.

And just think when you actually get that email account, you will learn all about how you need rat poison dyed blue and sold as an enhancement to your sex life. Who knew there were so many ways to spell the common name for this stuff and get around my email filters.

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"What would you do with a brain if you had one?" -Dorothy

"Well, then ignore what I have to say and go with what works for you." -Eliot Coleman

"Never mind the fact she';; burn up 25 cents in gas to save 5 cents on a can of beans."

People say they can't shop a couple stores because of the gas, but I live rurally and find that in my travels through town for work, school and social activities I pass many different stores. Since I only run in for loss leaders, it take a few moments of my time WHILE I'm doing something else.

Thanks ladycat for explaining things. For me, I buy so little processed foods and grow/freeze/can most of our food, that this would not be worth the effort for the full monty. Added to that, I'm easily embarrassed by cashiers even if I'm in the right. But thanks, I have found deals at my level of involvement.