Gotta Love Wally World

1) Whenever I think of the term “experience” in relation to retailers, I think of the overall shopping experience customers have with the store. I would wager that most of my friends are not generally ever happy with their Wal-Mart shopping experiences. With that being said, my friends usually go to Wal-Mart because they are looking to find the cheapest prices on the products they are looking for and know what kin d of shopping experience they are going to have before stepping into the store. Many of my friends think the lines are too long, the stores are too crowded, and think of a trip to Wal-Mart as a hassle and something they dread dealing with. Both of my roommates have actually stopped shopping at Wal-Mart because they hate the entire Wal-Mart experience. As I stated before, people shop at Wal-Mart to get the best prices and not to have the best “experience.” If we are speaking of experience in terms of atmospherics, then no; Wal-Mart has never had this as a competitive advantage (like say Starbucks does) because it’s company goals are based around cost. However, if we are talking about experience in terms of creating low prices for the consumer, always knowing what you’re going to get with your Wal-Mart experience, and generally having most of the products you want in stock, then yes; Wal-Mart has created this kind of experience for the consumer that it has been able to use as a competitive advantage.

In continuing with the second definition of experience, I feel that Wal-Mart has definitely made good use of the extensive amounts of data it has about its products and its customers. With its huge efficiencies made possible because of the extensive technology it uses to generate valuable data, Wal-Mart can afford to offer those low prices. Wal-Mart offers efficiencies and low prices that its competitors simple can’t offer its customers because Wal-Mart has been able to use its data so effectively. Although price isn’t every retailer’s competitive advantage, Wal-Mart is practically synonymous with savings.



2) This may seem silly, but I never really thought about my personal information being kept and stored whenever I swipe my debit card or credit card at checkout, or when they ask to see my ID. Obviously as stores that use frequent shopper cards and loyalty cards, I knew my information that was filled out was stored and kept into the stores’ databases. It’s kind of a creepy idea to know that my personal information is being stored by a major corporation and even creepier to know that Wal-Mart is for sure one of hundreds of stores keeping my personal info on tap without having a loyalty card. However, as the article points out, many people don’t realize their information is taken and stored and available to anyone that has the permission to access it. It is a major problem that people don’t know what’s going on, because if they did, they probably wouldn’t like it. Many customers simply just don’t think about it and don’t realize how much of their personal information is being recorded.

As the article states, Wal-Mart collects more data about its products and customers’ shopping habits than any other retailer, so privacy concerns are a definite issue. Also, they have access to SO much of SO many people’s personal information, including drivers license and social security numbers, because of the enormous quantity of stores and 100 million customers walking through them each week. Because Wal-Mart is a major corporation who’s main goal is to make a buck, my initial response to this question is that Wal-Mart will use whatever it can to make money, even if it means revealing personal information about its consumers. But honestly, I wouldn’t feel safe with any retailer having personally identifiable data about me.

However, my later reaction is more of a feeling of a catch-22. Wal-Mart needs information about its customers to be able to make predications, have correct inventory, and maintain efficiencies that allow it to offer such low prices. Even if I don’t necessarily trust Wal-Mart, I kind of don’t have a choice because I want low prices that they provide. I guess the risk of Wal-Mart misusing customers' personal information is the risk we all have to take and just hope Wal-Mart is only doing proper things with that information.