Kmart Done?

@daveb722  Ahhh, blaming the victims.  I have had people in HD come up to me and ask what I needed in STT.  So as to blaming victims, the dozens of small business owners on Main St. should have anticipated that the behemoth was coming, intent on taking away all of their sales by initially underpricing, and they should've done what?  Dug a deeper hole?  The laser-focus research Walmart does before opening a store would scare small business owners to death.  They know almost to the penny, the annual gross sales and how they can turn that into their profit.  Then they come in, underprice a few key items, have "sales" and the small businesses slowly collapse.  They know what items to zero in on to take out a local business.  Perfectly legal (that part of the puzzle was carefully researched as well), perfect capitalism.   I'm all for capitalism, but this is the worst of it. Destroy anyone in the way.  The Walton family wealth has ballooned to almost $170 million during the pandemic.  Profits galore.  Nice.  That's about $13 billion for each heir of Sam Walton.  Each of whom had little or nothing to do with earning it.  

@northsidekevin Sad you didn't invest I guess or you must have owned a business that failed but want to blame someone else.  You can blame Walmart all you want, small towns whether or not they have a wal-mart in them have shut down across the country.  I lived in a small town of 5k people and a wal-mart wanted to come in.  They shot it down.  So the same people that didn't want it now shop at the wal-mart a few towns over.  They lost tax revenue, jobs (although not high earning but jobs none the less) The people that say support our small main street businesses continue to be the same ones who don't. I have seen multiple businesses come and go.  Not due to wal-mart but due to the fact people honestly do not support their local businesses anymore. It's a failed belief and argument in our society today. If your this mad about wal-mart, you must really hate Amazon.  When Kmart goes belly up, don't worry, you'll spend more of your income to survive because Kevin hates wal-mart and their low prices which oh by the way would help the other 49,999 people who have very little income here.  So don't give me your BS. 

@daveb722  Nope.  You just threw out a false canard of victim blaming right out of the gate.  I shop at Walmart.  But I also know who got driven out of business over Walmart coming to town.  I also know that, like cel phones, somehow we survived without Walmart for a long, long time.  You can't turn an argument about greed on its head and win.  That's the Walmart way, and I would guess, based on experience watching businesses lose everything to Walmart and downtowns die and real estate values collapse, Walmart would do nothing for the Virgin Islands.  Supply and demand.  They'll charge the highest prices they can get away with based on their research of KMart, Plaza, Pricesmart, Cost-U-Less and the smaller businesses.  Watch for when they pick up their marbles and leave.  Again, I shop there.  If I can avoid it, I do, but part of their plan is to limit your options by greedy attrition.  Likewise, with the advent of online shopping, Amazon, etc., Walmarts are closing hand over fist.  So when Walmart leaves the Virgin Islands after destroying every small business in their wake, give Dave a call, because he's a tough guy and won't listen to any BS.  Probably has a direct line to the Walton's giant underground pandemic bunker in Arkansas.  

• @northsidekevin  HA HA, check some facts before you post anything.  In the last two years wal-mart closed less than 20 stores, about .33% of their total stores each year.  I did that for you because you seem to have issues between fact and fiction. Never said I was a tough guy, you brought that up, but I'm assuming your insecurities about yourself would lend to that statement.  Anyways, I wish you all the best.  My feelings that a Wal-mart would benefit the USVI stands, you don't, so we agree to disagree.  Sorry your butt hurts, I will call the Walton family and let them know.  

Great thread...very entertaining!

Well, Dave, I did "check the facts."  22 stores this year, 100 some odd slated for closure as of last fall.  But don't let the facts get in the way.  I also watched Walmart hurt the hell out of many small towns.  My butt is fine, but I suspect yours is part of the cult.  And I did say I shop at Walmart on occasion.  

In any event, I apologize to everyone to go so far with this person.  I forgot rational discussion goes nowhere when the cult is involved.  

And no, Walmart would not be "good" to the Virgin Islands.  It would represent a massive controlling factor in every aspect of Virgin Islander's lives.  

I don't get why Walmart is evil.  Their leadership team are simply doing what any intelligent management team would do, maximize revenues and minimize costs.  Please keep in mind no-one is forcing anyone to shop at Walmart, every transaction is mutually agreed to between the customer and Walmart.  Lower prices elevate standards of living, I think that's the goal.  Keep in mind Walmart is simply a distribution channel, like a local retailer or Amazon.com, they don't really make anything.  Their only differentiations are their prices and the customer experience.

Walmart is successful because they are more efficient than competitors, is this a bad thing?  The Walton family is wealthy because they own shares in the company their family started many years ago, is that bad?

Are the people who work at Walmart evil?  If not, how can the company be evil?  Companies are simply people working as a team.  If they are not competitive and efficient they loose and go out of business.  An interesting data point is that as of March 2019, only 55 of the original Fortune 500 companies (from 1955) are still in business.  The key point is that the business environment is constantly changing, if companies don't stay sharp and evolve they go out of business and/or get gobbled up.

When I was back on STT in February and March, I was disappointed in the newly rebuilt Kmart.

Couldn't find a single thing on my list.

Posted by: @northsidekevin

And no, Walmart would not be "good" to the Virgin Islands.  It would represent a massive controlling factor in every aspect of Virgin Islander's lives.  

Kinda like the government or WAPA or more like Plaza Extra and their ilk?

Posted by: @jaldeborgh

 Keep in mind Walmart is simply a distribution channel, like a local retailer or Amazon.com, they don't really make anything.  

Not really.  Walmart has boat loads of products made just for them that are not available anywhere else.  And not just a different variety of some standard product carried in other stores.  Just look at the product labels.  Some have a brand on them like Better Homes and Gardens but have Walmart listed as the manufacturer.  Even the friggin insulated travel mugs.

@vicanuck  Exactly.  You want more of that, except on steroids?  I'm out on this discussion.  It clearly goes nowhere.  

Posted by: @northsidekevin

@vicanuck  Exactly.  You want more of that, except on steroids?  I'm out on this discussion.  It clearly goes nowhere.  

Honestly, Kevin...I couldn't care less about shopping. I've done my time here and am on my exit trajectory.

What Kevin is saying about the effects on local business is EXACTLY the same thing we heard when K-Mart came here after Woolworth's passed on. And the same thing people said about Woolworth's when Barkers passed on...

Posted by: @Scubadoo

Posted by: @jaldeborgh

 Keep in mind Walmart is simply a distribution channel, like a local retailer or Amazon.com, they don't really make anything.  

Not really.  Walmart has boat loads of products made just for them that are not available anywhere else.  And not just a different variety of some standard product carried in other stores.  Just look at the product labels.  Some have a brand on them like Better Homes and Gardens but have Walmart listed as the manufacturer.  Even the friggin insulated travel mugs.

Walmart does private labeling, yes, but that isn't product development or manufacturing, it's simply a marketing strategy to expand the TAM (total available market) in the form of pricing based product segmentation.  Anyone can have private labeled aspirin or toothpaste, it's a widely used tactic.  I maintain that Walmart is a world class consumer goods distribution channel.

And so it comes to pass...Kmart West going out of business as we all knew it eventually would.

Now the question is...how long can Kmart Sunny Isle survive? Its still listed on the Transformco Properties website as of this AM. Obviously, if its still owned and operated by Transformco, it too will eventually close.

Virgin Islanders, at least folks on St. Croix, have apparently really embraced internet shopping as a hedge against the outrageous prices being charged by the middle eastern monopoly that controls everything from  gas to groceries.

Bring on the Walmart I say!