Walmart Ad Claims To Save Families $700 Million A Year

walletpop.com:

Last year Walmart got into some trouble for claiming it saved shoppers $700 a year just by shopping its stores. Competitors took issue with the claim, as did the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, and the ads were pulled. But Walmart is at it again, saying it can save shoppers $28 a week with its latest round of reduced prices. That's more than twice the amount it claimed that got it into hot water last year. Is it true?

Read the whole story: walletpop.com

Comments

[PlayTOE]

03:16 PM on 05/24/2010

Question ... how much money do you have to spend to save $700 a year? ( A lot )

I think that somehow they get that back and more by also selling you some overpriced items ...
just sayin' ...

[angrymanspokane]

03:12 PM on 05/24/2010

Great news Cletus, now you got more money to spend on cigarettes, fast food and NASCAR collector plates.

[SoDoSomething]

03:06 PM on 05/24/2010

We outsourced all our manufacturing to China to save $780 million dollars? Something doesn't add up here.

[spinns17]

11:20 AM on 05/24/2010

http://walmartwatch.com/

[GerryS]

12:50 AM on 05/24/2010

well,

while I choose not to spend 1 thin dime with smogmart, I have shopped them for price comparison.

if I wanted to spend the time, and gas to go there to shop, I might save $5 per week,

someone else can do the math, it's late------------------------------

[Skeetshooter]

02:20 PM on 05/23/2010

28 dollars a week savings is cold comfort when Walmart has sent your job off shore.

[SF TKF]

02:03 PM on 05/23/2010

What you save at the register we all pay out in taxes to cover the foodstamps and medicare their employees use (yes, they actually give new hires info on how to sign up for gov benefits!). So thanks very much for saving a dime on my nickel.

[MeinNH]

10:48 AM on 05/23/2010

Wal-Mart is a joke...they raised their prices by 40% and then "rollback" 10%...wow that saves us lots of money!

[cyclone70]

09:16 AM on 05/23/2010

On a related note, the are trying to build a store on the site of the "Wilderness" civil war battlefield

A place of great historical significance and where many a fine young soldier both north and south died.

I sent them a leter to protest, and got a predictable non answer response that amounted to "too bad we are building anyway"

No regard for history, no respect for the military fallen

[maxfax]

09:26 PM on 05/22/2010

Cutting costs to save families money? They save money on the benefits and salaries of their associates too. They're just all about families, aren't they?

[PhillyQuaker]

06:45 PM on 05/22/2010

I may have overpaid a bit, but I purchased tomato plants, seeds and some chicken wire fencing for a garden from my neighborhood hardware store. The place has been here since 1930 and it has a good-natured, homey feel to it, with the owner's friendly little dog outside sunning itself on the sidewalk and following customers into the store. A nice experience and it was worth the extra buck or two.

[maxfax]

09:27 PM on 05/22/2010

Support your local hardware store, the heck with WalMart.

[MJinCanada]

12:31 AM on 05/25/2010

Good for you.

[HouseProletariat]

03:11 PM on 05/22/2010

Hmmm. Do their calculations account for changes in the community after small business owners are driven out of business? How about the changes in local tax revenues that accompany that shift? What about the WalMarts that close after a community can no longer support them, leaving a giant box store and parking lot empty and driving down property values? How about the negative financial impact on small American producers that have to compete with Walmart having products made by Chinese prisoners being held without due process (ie slaves)? How about...oh, you get the idea.
Economic arguments are rarely as cut and dry as corporations would have you believe. Unseen, hidden costs permeate the marketplace and are left behind for the poorest of our society to absorb.

[cyclone70]

07:25 PM on 05/22/2010

you see this story repeated over and over again in small towns all over the midwest

Walmart comes, kills main street, moves to bigger store in a greenfield, closes older store, leaves it vacant to prevent a competitor from buying it. Determines profit not what they demand, close new store, leaves town with nothing

[sandiegoconservative]

01:09 PM on 05/24/2010

I see this argument made time and time again. I wrote a thesis on how this is not the case in many places. I noted 4 locations in San Diego that were full of empty storefronts. Wal-Mart came in and now the whole area is thriving. Right off of The 94 and College down in San Diego, is a perfect example of this. Before Wal-Mart came in, there was a Mervyn's and no other locations. The Mervyn's was going under anyway and Wal-Mart purchased the store site next door. Within a year, a bowling alley, a 24 hour fitness, and a new shopping market opened up next to it. A Home Depot superstore was built in the back lot. The strip mall across the lot re-opened and a bank and restaurant were built a year later. An old gas station across the street re-opened. Since that location started, across the freeway, 12 other businesses opened up.

I don't think your story is entirely accurate.

[HouseProletariat]

01:31 PM on 05/24/2010

Nor do I yours. While the increased traffic flow to the new Wal Mart may provide economic opportunity for some, it fails to take into account the impact on small private business that were not in immediate physical proximity to your observed locations. It sounds like you did an excellent study on the property values of commercial real estate values when a popular retail outlet opens up. Clearly, if the Wal Mart were to close, those same property values would then go down. Furthermore, to imply that your observations in San Diego could be applied to the larger economic implications of Wal Marts nation wide is a logical fallacy, "stacking the deck" with a chosen individual example that suits your purpose. Again, I say that economic arguments are rarely as cut and dry as corporations (or you) would have us believe.

[RealistDem]

02:36 PM on 05/22/2010

Walmart doesnt save you jack squat. They have no sale prices on foods. Sure they claim they will match competitors sales but are you really going to bring in 5 sales flyers and hold up a line with 10 people in? I'll go to my regular supermarket and get BOGO's and sale prices while getting fuel perks. Look close at their meats, most will say, in very small print, 8-10 percent solution added which is just adding water weight to the price. Electronics for the most part are of far inferior quality and need to be replaced in a year or two after they break. Then they pay their workers working poor wages, many of their workers are on gov't assistance, meanwhile the Walton daughters will continue to lobby for the end of the estate tax and lower taxes on capital gains. And you never see made in America sections anymore in a Walmart.

[nexxtep54]

01:56 PM on 05/22/2010

Who cares if the math ads up. If 50% of Americans shop at Wal Mart that's 160 million people saving 700 million. . . $4.37 each. WOW !!

A more interesting figure would be the cost to Americans and American industry from all the imported crap they have to replace every 2 years because it's broken.. . . not to mention the cost of landfills to bury it all, I was there last week and actually scavenged parts for my stereo that someone else had discarded. I yr old parts.

Add the cost of lower wages, fewer benefits, part time hours and the other main street businesses Walmart kills and Walmart can stuff their little report where the sun don't shine . . . and I don't mean Seattle.

[hmargret]

05:47 PM on 05/22/2010

Totally spot on......this store is a blight. But Americans have choices and if they choose this store over local ones, they reap those $8/hour jobs for their kids. Oh and don't forget the sexism. Call that a bargain?

[Randy Shepherd]

01:48 PM on 05/22/2010

i hate wal-mart for so many reasons, so i will admit right now i do not have an objective view on this. they have destroyed america. people celebrate getting a wal-mart in their town, and then don't understand why all the mom & pop stores on main st are closing. they put other stores who use to pay taxes out of business. now their super stores that sell food too are attacking the local grocery stores.
they are also so cheap, many of their brands change because they demand such a savings, that a profit can't be made. my former employer had to drop them as a customer since we actually were loosing money selling to them. they are a big bully but get support for a few cents savings, but the cost to main st culture is not worth it.

[cyclone70]

09:11 AM on 05/23/2010

They hurt small towns in two major ways, putting the local retailers out of business, and accellerationg the offhsoring of manufacturing with their bullying of vendors - its either produce in china or go out of business is the postion they put their US suppliers in