Ask anyone at Walmart , Sam's Club or Costco's and they will tell you that their big money maker is paper goods (i.e., toilet paper and paper towels). Stacks and stacks of the stuff in the "big box" stores does not look like it takes up a lot of floor space. And, if you know anything about retail or wholesale, the ruling king inside four walls is square footage of space. Land is valuable but shelf space is even more valuable. In order to use that much space in a 75 to 125,000 sq. ft. building it must produce big sales dollars right down to every square inch.
Walmart has always promoted their price comparison scam. Bring in your receipt. They don't have to price check that way. You are doing it for them. And, you can bet that the info gets noted somewhere in the marketing department and/or General Manager's office for that daily conference call.
What caught my eye the other day was the big comparison going on with Kroger's in the commercials aired. In that battle, Walmart has declared war on Kroger's. Why, because Walmart is loosing market shares in the grocery business. Walmart does not like to admit anything and will sometimes go to great lengths to try to turn the potentially damaging situation in public relations into something less threatening or even try to make it a "golden goose" if it can.
Four years ago, I walked out of Walmart as a customer and began to really "shop" for bargains and savings. It took thirty days to break the Walmart habit. In the past two months, I have gone to Walmart twice. From my observations, I still made the best choice of not shopping at Walmart.
My brother and his wife had given me a gift card to Walmart as an e-gift. That is the reason why I ventured back into the store. I had purchased a pair of house shoes. The story behind that was that I had found the most wonderful and comfortable house shoes at Kroger's three years ago. Every Christmas, I bought a new pair and tossed the old ones to the garbage. This past Christmas, I had missed out on getting a pair for a couple of reasons. One, the pair did not show the wear in one year as the other two pairs had done. Second, the supply didn't last as long as others had discovered that when they go one sale, you had better buy them right then. I failed to do that for reason one and I lost out. So, along came the gift card and to use it up, I went to Walmart. I bought a pair of slippers/house shoes at Walmart. Less than 90-days later, I took them back. They looked like they had come out of a dumpster. They had big clumps of fleece coming out and the plastic supports under the heal were cutting into my heal. When I took them back, the customer service person was so insulting and basically said that I could not have bought this pair in the last 90-days even with my receipt.
The customer service person then gave me a gift card for the amount of the receipt . I went to the paper isle and purchased toilet paper and paper towels. Now that opened up a whole new can of worms. When I was still shopping at Walmart. I regularly bought their 4-pack of tissue and a 3-pack of paper towels that were the cheapest price in the market. I don't put good money into paper goods. You flush one and you toss the other after use. Keeping the price down is a point of logic, not a point of personal comfort.
I started buying my paper products at Kroger's because Walmart ended stocking the sizes with the competitive price such as 4-rolls of tissue for 88-cents and a three pack of towels for $1.67 was the going price in the market before they packed it in a 6-pack.
So, when home, after putting the items into storage I continued to use my Kroger items until it was used up. But before tossing the wrappers, they got placed on a shelf. When the wrapper finally came off the Walmart tissue, it too, was placed on the shelf. Yesterday, I sat down to run the numbers as a comparison. There were several differences. Kroger was 1-ply at 198 sheets while the Walmart was 2-ply but only 150 sheets. The sheets sizes were Kroger's at 4.0 x 4.0 inches while the Walmart was 4.27 x 3.75 inches. The net was Kroger at 8.1 meters squared while the Walmart was 6.1 meters squared.
The bottom line is that Kroger was still the better price with 26.5748031 feet per roll while the Walmart tissue was 20.0131234 feet per roll. Some will argue that the Walmart was 2-ply. Come on!
with the Kroger difference of 6 feet extra per roll, use an extra sheet or two and fold it over.
Every thing that I have compared at Kroger's is still a better saving than Walmart. The paper towel thing is much the same as the toilet tissue issue. Kroger wins there, also.
I will take pictures of the wrappers later. I'm waiting for a sunny day. I want the sun to shine of this paper issue!
Edited for more detail.
Edited 04/28/14 to add pictures & edited to correct the price at per 4-pack.
Walmart has always promoted their price comparison scam. Bring in your receipt. They don't have to price check that way. You are doing it for them. And, you can bet that the info gets noted somewhere in the marketing department and/or General Manager's office for that daily conference call.
What caught my eye the other day was the big comparison going on with Kroger's in the commercials aired. In that battle, Walmart has declared war on Kroger's. Why, because Walmart is loosing market shares in the grocery business. Walmart does not like to admit anything and will sometimes go to great lengths to try to turn the potentially damaging situation in public relations into something less threatening or even try to make it a "golden goose" if it can.
Four years ago, I walked out of Walmart as a customer and began to really "shop" for bargains and savings. It took thirty days to break the Walmart habit. In the past two months, I have gone to Walmart twice. From my observations, I still made the best choice of not shopping at Walmart.
My brother and his wife had given me a gift card to Walmart as an e-gift. That is the reason why I ventured back into the store. I had purchased a pair of house shoes. The story behind that was that I had found the most wonderful and comfortable house shoes at Kroger's three years ago. Every Christmas, I bought a new pair and tossed the old ones to the garbage. This past Christmas, I had missed out on getting a pair for a couple of reasons. One, the pair did not show the wear in one year as the other two pairs had done. Second, the supply didn't last as long as others had discovered that when they go one sale, you had better buy them right then. I failed to do that for reason one and I lost out. So, along came the gift card and to use it up, I went to Walmart. I bought a pair of slippers/house shoes at Walmart. Less than 90-days later, I took them back. They looked like they had come out of a dumpster. They had big clumps of fleece coming out and the plastic supports under the heal were cutting into my heal. When I took them back, the customer service person was so insulting and basically said that I could not have bought this pair in the last 90-days even with my receipt.
The customer service person then gave me a gift card for the amount of the receipt . I went to the paper isle and purchased toilet paper and paper towels. Now that opened up a whole new can of worms. When I was still shopping at Walmart. I regularly bought their 4-pack of tissue and a 3-pack of paper towels that were the cheapest price in the market. I don't put good money into paper goods. You flush one and you toss the other after use. Keeping the price down is a point of logic, not a point of personal comfort.
I started buying my paper products at Kroger's because Walmart ended stocking the sizes with the competitive price such as 4-rolls of tissue for 88-cents and a three pack of towels for $1.67 was the going price in the market before they packed it in a 6-pack.
So, when home, after putting the items into storage I continued to use my Kroger items until it was used up. But before tossing the wrappers, they got placed on a shelf. When the wrapper finally came off the Walmart tissue, it too, was placed on the shelf. Yesterday, I sat down to run the numbers as a comparison. There were several differences. Kroger was 1-ply at 198 sheets while the Walmart was 2-ply but only 150 sheets. The sheets sizes were Kroger's at 4.0 x 4.0 inches while the Walmart was 4.27 x 3.75 inches. The net was Kroger at 8.1 meters squared while the Walmart was 6.1 meters squared.
The bottom line is that Kroger was still the better price with 26.5748031 feet per roll while the Walmart tissue was 20.0131234 feet per roll. Some will argue that the Walmart was 2-ply. Come on!
with the Kroger difference of 6 feet extra per roll, use an extra sheet or two and fold it over.
Every thing that I have compared at Kroger's is still a better saving than Walmart. The paper towel thing is much the same as the toilet tissue issue. Kroger wins there, also.
I will take pictures of the wrappers later. I'm waiting for a sunny day. I want the sun to shine of this paper issue!
Edited for more detail.
Edited 04/28/14 to add pictures & edited to correct the price at per 4-pack.
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| Kroger wins with 6 feet more tissue per roll. |
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| Walmart came in second .Both products sell for $0.88 per 4-pack |
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