Walmart Case Study

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2/19/2018

Walmart Case Study

        McMillon is going the right way by pursuing the moving upscale. The upscaling moves that Walmart had made until 2015 such as having a nicer shopping experience for clothes with nicer clothes and wooden floors, increasing the minimum price, and adding cashiers for shorter wait times. All these are changes that consumers must find out on their own by going to their local Walmart, and the time it’ll take for people to find out about the new Walmart experience can be long.

        Walmart’s change in their clothing department was bringing in more brand names at Walmart’s affordable prices. This is seen as the main change, but I think that the main change was actually bringing in the wooden floors to all the clothing sections and adding additional dressing rooms. This is the main change because the wooden floor and more dressing rooms make consumers feel as if they are shopping at a more upscale store such as J.C Penney, or Macy’s but with Walmart prices. And in many Walmart locations that have been opened for decades the wooden floors are a minor change that is cost effective in order to give one of the biggest sections of the store a modern appearance.

        Increasing the minimum wage can also help make the Walmart experience a more upscale one. The way that increasing the minimum wage can do that is by keeping workers happy, the increase to $9 and $10 dollars in 2015 and 2016 is going to make workers happy, specially those working in areas where the state minimum wage is lower than $10. And happy workers are workers that do their job better, have more loyalty to the store, and give better customer service. And better customer service is something that can lead to a more upscale experience where you go into a store and are greeted by the associates, or you are walking by a specific section of the store and an associate from that section will ask you if you need help without you asking first. This is something that you experience at upscale stores and smaller stores such as Vans. With the increase in salary this is what Walmart is hoping to achieve without needing to overhaul their whole new associate training.

        One other thing that can make the Walmart experience more upscale are shorter lines. Going to a store with shorter lines makes the shopping experience feel more personal, and thus more upscale. This is also one of the few advantages that upscale and smaller stores have over Walmart, because when consumers are in a rush they might decide to pay a little more to skip the line. But with Walmart hiring more associates to be cashiers and opening self-pay stations at many of their locations they are finally ready to end the last advantage that upscale and smaller stores had.