Wal-Mart's Helping Hand

WAL-MART'S SECRETS ON COMPETING WITH WAL-MART

As part of the deal that brings a Wal-Mart Supercenter to the old Mission Village site, Wal-Mart has to sponsor two seminars to teach local businesses how to compete with a big box retailer. The City Council is proud of this requirement.

It’s like requiring the San Diego Chargers to hold practices to teach opponents how to compete against them. C’mon, what incentive would they have to actually impart useful information to the other teams? (Of course they could give the Oakland Raiders their entire playbook, snap counts, hand signs and game plan and the Raiders would still find a way to lose by two touchdowns. I say this as a 30 year Raider fan!)

Having Wal-Mart hold these seminars is an interesting little concession on their part. The fact that they’re so eager to do it might make me a wee bit suspicious if I were a retailer on N. Texas St.

It’s like the heavyweight champion of the world training his opponent for an upcoming title fight. I don’t think the champ is going to show you much that’s going to help you in the ring.

Now I don’t mean to be cynical. But there are courses one can take, books one can read and resources on the Internet to help small businesses compete. Better yet, one could simply go ask businesses located near Supercenters what they’ve had to do to remain profitable.

I think some of the ways to compete with Wal-Mart are pretty obvious. You can’t compete with price. Compete with service. Be knowledgeable about your products. Be courteous and helpful. Offer unique products that Wal-Mart doesn’t carry. Advertise. One of the things a Supercenter isn’t going to be at its busiest times is convenient. Be convenient in getting customers in and out.

Who knows? Maybe those seminars will be informative and instructive and help minimize the impact of the Supercenter. But you have to admit the idea of someone training their competitors is worth a chuckle.

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