Walmart ☀

[Bismarck]

Walmart is very convenient. They opened one in my hometown (exurban, less than 10,000 people on the fringes of Indy) and there haven’t been any negative results so far. I don’t usually shop there but people who blame societies ills in Walmart or think of it as some kind of horrible place are pretty amusing. It’s just a giant retail store that caters to working and middle class people. If you prefer smaller stores, that’s great too.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Atlas is the kinda place that would sneeringly look down on people who buy clothes from Target... but I think you can get great value out of Target's clothes.  Also, Target has this odd reputation of being where you go to buy a swimsuit when you need one right away.

Target really struggled mid-decade because of their disastrous entrance and retreat from the tasteless retail blackhole that is Canada.

Revenue growth was very good in 2018 but margins have been suppressed because of increased expenses in expanding delivery/online options and also increased store hours and employee wages.  They are raising their minimum pay to $15/hour by next year.

They're also launching a whole bunch of new apparel/accessory brands, especially for children because while birth rates are down, spending on baby/childrens' apparel is up.

This idea that Wal-Mart is where you go for sundries and you go to Target to buy a cute bracelet and a napkin holder isn't really true.  The urban smaller format Targets focus on the basics the most knowing you can get the napkin holder at Williams Sonoma.  Their competitors are CVS and Walgreens in these areas.

What had been hurting Wal-Mart earlier in the decade was online competition and competition from below.  Someone beat Wal-Mart at their game and stores like Family Dollar and Dollar Tree have done incredibly well.  They are capturing the dollars of the working poor.  I imagine Aldi would really hurt Wal-Mart's grocery bottom line in these rural areas as well.

Target is kinda stuck between Wal-Mart, online shopping, specialty stores, and the dying behemoth department stores from which it was borne.  But I think they'll do fine.

[Rules for me, but not for thee]

Atlas is the kinda place that would sneeringly look down on people who buy clothes from Target... but I think you can get great value out of Target's clothes.  Also, Target has this odd reputation of being where you go to buy a swimsuit when you need one right away.

Target really struggled mid-decade because of their disastrous entrance and retreat from the tasteless retail blackhole that is Canada.

Revenue growth was very good in 2018 but margins have been suppressed because of increased expenses in expanding delivery/online options and also increased store hours and employee wages.  They are raising their minimum pay to $15/hour by next year.

They're also launching a whole bunch of new apparel/accessory brands, especially for children because while birth rates are down, spending on baby/childrens' apparel is up.

This idea that Wal-Mart is where you go for sundries and you go to Target to buy a cute bracelet and a napkin holder isn't really true.  The urban smaller format Targets focus on the basics the most knowing you can get the napkin holder at Williams Sonoma.  Their competitors are CVS and Walgreens in these areas.

What had been hurting Wal-Mart earlier in the decade was online competition and competition from below.  Someone beat Wal-Mart at their game and stores like Family Dollar and Dollar Tree have done incredibly well.  They are capturing the dollars of the working poor.  I imagine Aldi would really hurt Wal-Mart's grocery bottom line in these rural areas as well.

Target is kinda stuck between Wal-Mart, online shopping, specialty stores, and the dying behemoth department stores from which it was borne.  But I think they'll do fine.

I know you don't live in MN now but Target just remodeled every store in the Twin Cities area last year and most include now a beer/wine store among other things, and they dropped the "Super", Greatland, etc subnames.

[Devout Centrist]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Well, I'd argue that Target has crafted a different brand image compared to Walmart, Walgreens, or CVS. It's always been my perception that Target featured a better and higher quality selection of most consumer goods when compared with a store like Walmart. Places like Williams Sonoma are more of a speciality store to begin with; Target's brand covers a broader width of products.

That's my perspective; when Target came to my hometown, they featured grocery shopping and clothing right off the bat.

[Dr. MB]

I almost never go to Walmart ☀. I've been to a couple, but never to get anything big.

Target's way better, well, that and there aren't any Walmart ☀s close to my house (besides a Walmart ☀ Neighborhood Market, which doesn't really count).

[Del Tachi]

This idea that Wal-Mart is where you go for sundries and you go to Target to buy a cute bracelet and a napkin holder isn't really true.  The urban smaller format Targets focus on the basics the most knowing you can get the napkin holder at Williams Sonoma.  Their competitors are CVS and Walgreens in these areas.

I just really don't think this is true.  Consider the relative amount of floor space dedicated to apparel/home goods vs groceries/sundries in a suburban Target vs a suburban Walmart.  Also consider that Target has several differentiated store brands for these items, whereas (I think) Walmart only has a single store brand for each differentiated product.  While I don't have any raw data to back this up, I think it's pretty apparent based on retail placement/product promotion that Target relies much more on what I'll call "single purpose retail" - that is, people making a dedicated trip to a specific store to buy a specific item (typically apparel or a home decor item).  That's exactly what makes them much more vulnerable to being "squeezed out" by online or local retail options.

CVS and Walgreens are really different animals in retail because 1) they're primarily retail pharmacies and 2) they compete spatially.  Since the local retail footprint of a CVS/Walgreens is quite small (no one is going to drive across town to go to one), they compete for your dollar by being the closest, most convenient option.  That's why a CVS will open up right across the street from a Walgreens (or vice versa) - because consumers don't really care which one they go to, they'll just go to whichever one is closer.  The convenience thing also results in CVS/Walgreens being a lot smaller than Target/Walmart (the point is to get shoppers in and out quickly), which makes them very well-suited to urban environments.  Target has to some extent copied this model in urban areas, but it's not their default or preferred store layout.

[Ban my account ffs!]

You are not wrong that Target and Wal-Mart do have differences in which departments they devote different amounts of space to... but it's not "basic sundries" vs "softlines and housewares"

Target devotes almost no space to automotive and relatively little to outdoors outside of what you might find on a deck or suburban backyard.  Sporting goods is also similarly underlooked.

But laundry detergent, household cleaning supplies and appliances, etc is at least the same.