Walmart Has One of the Most Well-Orchestrated

Walmart has one of the most well-orchestrated and organized logistics, supply chains and operations systems of any enterprise globally operating today. It's core competencies in supply chain management, logistics, distribution center and operations management set a global standard in their industry (Stevenson, 2009). The company also has an exceptional level of expertise and skill in launching their supercenters in any location that has the demographic mix of customers that will support its operations. Opening supercenters and getting them profitable while also using these locations as distribution centers in their logistics networks is what Walmart does exceptionally well (Stevenson, 2009). Given the sheer magnitude of their operations however, they inevitably impact the local economies they enter into in both a positive and negative way.

Assessing the Pros and Cons of Walmart

For the small businesses located nearby, Walmart signals a major shift in the overall economic foundation of the community and if it is sparsely populated area, the entire state. For the small business, the negatives are much greater price competition, the challenge of competing on the breadth of products offered, Walmart being able to hire the better employees due to a greater variety of employee services, and the potential for Walmart to target their specific customers segments in the town or community as well (Edwards, 2011). Food retailers argue that Walmart takes the quality of food down and that its lack of concern over nutrition actually leads to obesity occurring more often in the cities and town they operate in (Courtemanche, Carden, 2011). The small business owner would also view their merchandising, global branding and marketing strategies, and tendency to become cutthroat in their competition on electronics as very intimidating.

Despite these weaknesses, Walmart has been known to increase the price of real estate in small towns and economically challenged areas by investing heavily in logistics and operations facilities, which tend to take many acres to build. The small businesses owners in a small town could rejoice over the increase in property values as they have done in New Orleans for example (LaRose, 2011). The small businesses could also see this as a means to bring more potential customers into the region, as Walmart often blankets entire regions with heavy advertising and promotion to promote a new store. Third, small business owners could see this development as a validation that their city or community is growing and has potential for even more growth.

From the town residents' standpoint the cons are increased traffic, potentially a loss of personalized service if Walmart's pricing and marketing drive smaller businesses out of business, and a drop in wages as other businesses in the region drop their wages when Walmart can get away with paying just the minimum (Edwards, 2011). The pros are exceptional level of merchandise selection, lower prices, part-time employment and greater price competition on the high end items many families with median incomes cannot afford, incouding flat screen TVs which is an area that Walmart competes heavily against with Target on extensively.