CHANGES IN THE RETAIL SECTOR IN RECENT YEARS
The retail sector and retail sales corporations have changed in the last five years, as the conditions within which they function have changed. Consumers have more choices about where they buy products because of Internet-based retailing. Thus, retail sales corporations must (a) develop an online presence and/or (b) provide consumers with incentives to continue to shop in their brick-and-mortar stores. Wal-Mart have been a force to recon with in relation to each of thee strategy options (Plunkett Research, Ltd. 4).
Wal-Mart is to the business community what the Bush Administration is to international relations.á The company is rapidly colonizing North America and is making tentative overtures in more distant regions.á The company appears to be quite willing to make pre-emptive strikes to attain its objectives. Wal-Mart has a presence in the Internet-based marketplace, and the company's incentives to consumers to continue to stream to Wal-Mart's brick-and-mortar stores involve both (a) expanded product offerings and (b) the lowest prices around (Wal-Mart 4).
With its company cheer, regimental approach, "good ole boy" public persona, and devotion to the cult of Sam Walton, Wal-Mart provides its vision and values in a series of documents that resemble a combination of the Farmers' Almanac and Chairman Mao's Little Red Book. Wal-Mart's mission is to combine workplace excellence, customer service, and low prices so that the company's performance will always exceed customer expectations (Wal-Mart 2).á Achieving the goal may require unpaid overtime for employees, unsupportable margins for domestic suppliers, and miserable working conditions for employees of foreign suppliers, but, perhaps, that is what the requirements are (the race to the bottom) to exceed customer expectations in the North American hinterlands.
Joseph Schumpeter (13), a former Austrian Minister of Finance and...