Given that Wally World is the biggest retail company in the world, it is inevitable for them to offer a phone service that one-ups what other telecommunications companies have to offer.
Walmart is beta testing a program called Straight Talk. Straight Talk is a wireless service that will not require a contract and costs only $45 per month for an unlimited minutes, messages, and data plan. There will also be a $30 plan that offers 1,000 minutes, 1,000 SMS and text messages, and 30MB data.
However the phones that will work with the plan retails for $100. These phones include the LG Slider 290 and the “Samsung 451.” The Samsung 451 is expected to have a QWERTY kayboard. The LG Slider 290 does not have that many features.
“It has been very encouraging to see the excitement and response to the Straight Talk pilot in 234 stores that began last summer at Walmart,” stated Walmart U.S. VP of Media Services Greg Hall in a press release. “In light of the savings customers continue to need, we have worked very quickly to extend this offering to all of our Walmart customers nationwide, and just before the holidays.”
Walmart made about $1.74 billion in sales last year, making it the 13 largest U.S. online retailer. Amazon is ranked #1 with $19.17 billion in 2008 sales. Walmart hopes to increase their online market share by adding cosmetics to their inventory.
“In a few months, whenever someone thinks about buying diapers — in the same way they think about going to a Wal-Mart in the physical world — they will think about going to Walmart.com,” stated Walmart.com CEO Raul Vazquez. Walmart as a whole has gained market share due to a weak economy.
As part of the online inventory expansion, many personal consumer goods will be added. These goods include diapers, toothpaste, condoms, Tylenol medicine, and lipstick. About a year ago, Walmart.com listed these goods but did not allow people to buy it online. Website visitors could only find out which Walmart retail stores have these goods in stock.
When consumers are upset with certain companies, they will setup their own websites that bashes on the companies. Upset with the negative publicity, companies usually try to send their lawyers after these websites but end up losing the cases often.
It got to the point where William Pecau, partner of Steptoe & Johnson called online gripers “self-righteous narcissists with time on their hands.” And then he added “shutting down a gripe site generally is not easy, often cannot be done, and often is counterproductive.” These websites generally don’t violate trademark laws because the websites don’t cause any consumer confusion over who runs the websites.
But now Wally World is making an attempt to have the website www.walmartworkerscanada.ca taken down. Wal-Mart filed an injunction in the Quebec Superior Court for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union to have their website taken down. Wal-Mart does not want them to use the terms Walmart or Wal-Mart and to stop using certain expression. For example, they are using an expression that says “Union for Walmart Workers” and “Get Respect. Live Better.” which is a play on Wal-Mart’s own slogan: “Save Money. Live Better.”
UFCW President Wayne Hanley said “This injunction request is an over the top assault on effective freedom of speech. . . It’s a kneejerk response by Walmart to the idea of its employees trying to understand their options as workers, and trying to share experiences with other ‘associates.’”
This just further damages Wal-Mart’s online reputation.
Microsoft Corporation plans to opening several retail stores shortly after hiring David Porter as the company’s corporate VP of retail stores. Porter has worked at Wal-Mart for 27 years. Porter was also the head of worldwide product distribution at DreamWorks Animation SKG since around 2007.
Porter will be starting work this Tuesday and his responsibility will be to improve the PC buying experience for consumers. His first task is to plan the timing, locations, and design of Microsoft stores, a strength that Apple already has.
The Microsoft stores are a way of improving the software company’s brand since Vista was criticized for being slow, too secure, and requiring much larger hardware specifications. Apple capitalized on these weaknesses by releasing several PC vs. Mac ads. Apple has also admitted that their stores helped raise their own brand awareness. Microsoft hopes to achieve the same thing.
“I am delighted to welcome David to Microsoft,” stated Microsoft COO Kevin Turner. “This is an exciting time with our strong lineup of upcoming product releases including Windows 7 and new releases of Windows Live and Windows Mobile. We’re also working hard to transform the PC and Microsoft buying experience at retail by improving the articulation and demonstration of the Microsoft innovation and value proposition so that it’s clear, simple and straightforward for consumers everywhere. David’s unique and diverse background, coupled with his deep retail roots and distribution understanding, will be an invaluable asset in this long-term effort.”
Porter will be working with Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices Division, a unit within Microsoft that already has retail experience. Porter will be reporting directly to Kevin Turner.
The rumors about Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) selling their beloved iPhones at Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) is getting closer to being true. Today Bloomberg contacted several employees at different Wal-Mart stores across California (more…)
If the rumor is true, it would be a major win for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT). Boy Genius Report has it that Wal-Mart will be selling a 4GB iPhone 3G model for $99 with a 2-year agreement. Apple originally dropped the 4GB model and replaced it with an 8GB model. Currently Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) sells the 2-year contract 8GB iPhone for $199 and the 16GB iPhone for $299.
Do I believe this rumor is true? Not really. Wal-Mart’s customer demographic are not really the same as Apple fanboys. Selling the phone for $99 makes the brand look cheap. Plus if the rumor is actually true, then Apple would be sending people away from their own retail stores.
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) will be selling the T-Mobile G1 powered by Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android phones on the cheap. Starting tomorrow, 550 Wal-Mart stores will be offering the phone at $148.88 with a 2 year agreement.
This move is a blow to Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY), who is selling the iPhone for $199-$299. T-Mobile stores sell the phone for $31 more. What will this do for Wal-Mart? This will help them improve get a more tech-savvy demographic.
This sucks for T-Mobile stores because they’ll lose customers as the deal news begins to spread.
Amit Chowdhry | October 6, 2008 | 1,289 views | Comments Categorized under Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) has carried on their tradition of sending legal threats to websites about posting Black Friday ads before the embargo date of November 24. They did this last year and sent out the notices for this year already. Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) and Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY) have a tendency to sue actually after the Black Friday ad circulars go up.
Many commenters on TechDirt are wondering why this is such a big deal. As a former retail employee, I can honestly tell you that Black Friday is one of the biggest revenue generation days of the entire year. If any of the circulars get leaked, it means that competitors have access to your information and can attempt to beat the prices. This in turn will lead consumers to stand in line of your store instead of other stores.
In this case, I actually empathize with Wal-Mart and believe that they have a good reason to send out these notifications. The law in this case is being used as a tool for preventing anything that hinders corporate capital gains. I’d probably do the same if I was the CEO of a major retail company. Below is a letter that Wal-Mart’s legal counsel firm DrinkerBiddle & Reath L.L.P. sent to GottaDeal.com.
Doostang is an invitation-only recruiting and job search engine website that provides listings of high-end jobs. Doostang was founded by Mareza Larizadeh and Pavel Krapivin. The job search company started in 2005 and boasts that Doostang users have been hired by JPMorgan, Bain, Google, Time, KKR, etc.
Doostang has about $4.5 million in funding, of which Shasta Ventures invested $3.5 million. The company also recently announced that they have poached Drew Carpenter from Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT).
Carpenter headed the media business at Wal-Mart.com. According to the Doostang Management Team page, Carpenter helped grow Wal-Mart’s photo business to over 10 times it’s size in less than 3 years, thus creating $100 million in annual revenues. Before Wal-Mart, Carpenter worked at Madrona Venture Group and co-founded SF Interactive.
I believe that Carpenter has been acting as a CEO for a couple of months now, but it was made official in a press release sent to VentureWire and the San Jose Business Journal. Regardless, I haven’t covered news about Doostang before so I thought why not publish an article about it anyway.
Amit Chowdhry | October 2, 2006 | 643 views | Comments Categorized under Wal-Mart
That was a close-call. There are some things that we do not want to have on the Internet, such as a Fortune 10 major supply-chain corporation building a social network. Wal-Mart’s social network target audience seemed to be the same demographic that are victims of online pedophilism on MySpace (young teenagers).
Walmart.com/schoolyourway was temporarily launched to “win fab prizes” and to increase brand awareness as many users of this demographic tend to prefer Target for their school needs.
A video of a girl sporting a strapless prom dress was featured on one of the videos displayed on the site where she mentioned “I’ll school my way by looking hot in my Wal-Mart clothes to school to catch a cute boy’s eye…” During my tenure in high school, I never once heard a girl say that she was looking hot in Wal-Mart clothes. This advertising doesn’t relate to the young ones! Just ask 14 year old girl, Amy Kandel who was interviewed by Ad Age. She stated “Some of the kids looked like they were trying to be supercool, but they weren’t at all, and they were just being kind of weird.”
Where this social network was placed, now there is a disclaimer stating, “Sorry, but the School Your Way promotion has ended. You will be redirected to Walmart.com where you can always find the hottest fashion, music, and more all year long.” Good riddance.
