The state of the grocery industry just continues to get more and more interesting. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been sharing articles about some traditional supermarkets and retailers believing the key to future financial success is to be “more like Wal-Mart,” touting everyday-low-prices versus employing high/low sales cycles.
Well, today’s edition of Daily Finance has this story… “Wal-Mart Quietly Raises Prices.”
According to the article, Wal-Mart has been increasing prices 6% across the board over the past six weeks, with some products’ prices taking increasing as high as 60%..! Some highlights:
“For instance, the price of a 32-ounce bottle of Windex household cleaner jumped 50%, a 12-ounce box of Quaker Oats instant grits climbed 65% and a 50-ounce container of Tide detergent rose by more than 50%.
“Wal-Mart is also under assault in the grocery aisle — one of the areas it has aggressively expanded over the last few years…Theoretically, this should be Wal-Mart’s moment to shine. U.S. consumer confidence in July was at its lowest point since February. People still want low prices. Unfortunately for Wal-Mart, they just would rather shop at other stores.“
So Wal-Mart’s own “everyday low price” strategy isn’t even working out for themselves anymore. Why does SuperValu feel it is going to work for Jewel?
PTOMOM says
I was at Walmart a couple days ago and realized 3 things I bought the week before were higher. I often buy my “kid soda” at Walmart when I don’t have a stock from couponing at Jewel or Dominicks. The Walmart brand , twist up, went from 66 cents to 78 cents. That is a big percentage! Just another reason to avoid the “big box store”
peppermintpatti23 says
Yes we have noticed for the past few weeks that their going around changing the prices….and we don’t like what we see. Their raising prices and cutting hours, we just don’t get it!! They keep this up, wonder what their next slogon will be….
rld2mad says
Wal-Mart is ahead of the curve. They understand that corporate taxes are going up to pay for the new laws in Washington. Politicians will be able to blame greedy corporations on the price increases and deflect attention away from the new taxes. We all have to remember that the consumer pays all the taxes. Corporations simply pass them along in the form of higher prices in order to remain healthy. So the next time you hear a politician claim they didn’t raise taxes, remember taxes trickle down to all of us in countless ways. The result is still the same, if our income hasn’t gone up our standard of living drops. This is why sites such as this are so important to consumers. We will all have to work even harder to take advantage of buying advantages.
dancingwolves says
Went to Dominick’s to pick up just a few things and went past a display of the Maruchan Yakisoba noodles which my daughter likes for school lunches once in a while. I remember them being on sale for .88 each and regular price $1.00 each for the longest time until now. Today they were advertised “regularly” $2.39 each but on sale $1.59 and with a buy one get one free. Obivously a good sale if BOGO and with expired coupons. But go figure.
kahoun says
New to the coupon game. Was very frustrated to use a coupon at Wal-mart. It was a “manufacturers coupon” and the cashier said “Well if it won’t scan then we can’t take it”. Hello, never had a problem at Jewel or Dominicks.