Moving Up With Wal-Mart
N E W Y O R K, Dec. 27 -- By the end of the year, the company that built nearly $200 billion in sales on such mundane products as paper plates and lawn mowers will unseat General Motors Corp. asAmerica’s largest company.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s rise to the top isn’t just a sign of theretailer’s mastery of “everyday low prices,” powerful logisticssystems and cutting-edge technology. It also reflects Americans’continuing love affair with the discount sector, which is tappinginto the increasingly sophisticated tastes of budget-consciousconsumers. Discounters are also appealing more and more to upscaleshoppers who just don’t want to spend a lot of money for certainitems.
“Wal-Mart has given consumers a new and appealing connotationto value, and in the process raised the stature of discounting,”said Kurt Barnard, publisher of Barnard’s Retail Trend Report,based in Upper Montclair, N.J.
“Discounters used to be places to go because you couldn’tafford shopping anywhere else,” said Wendy Leibmann, president ofWSL Strategic Retail, a consulting firm based in New York. “Nowit’s a sign of a smart shopper.”
Cocktail Drinkers Loved the Towels
While the discount industry has been bruised a bit by highergasoline prices, it is expected to fare much better than departmentstores and specialty retailers as the economy slows.
It’s attracting people like Jane McCarthy, a 36-year-old seniormarketing manager from Yorktown Heights, N.Y., who calls herself a“discount queen.”
Each week, the mother of a 3-year-old shops at one of thenation’s three largest discounters. Target is her favorite becauseit has a lot of unique items, but she turns to Wal-Mart for toysand garden supplies. At Kmart, she buys Sesame Street clothing, andalso gives kudos to its Martha Stewart Collection of bathaccessories.
“I threw a cocktail party, and my guests loved the towels,”she said.
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