"George Cleveland" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 23 Apr 2004 15:20:05 GMT, "Doug Kanter"
wrote:

"Greg Pavlov" wrote in message
.. .
On Fri, 23 Apr 2004 14:19:52 GMT, "Doug Kanter"
wrote:

Around here (Rochester NY), Wal Mart hasn't made much of a dent
in that category.

That's because Wegman's is in town, which is
probably the best there is in the supermarket
business, and Tops also competes very well.

True. But, Wal Mart's got grocery problems elsewhere, too. There's been a
huge amount of consolidating in the wholesale end of the grocery biz.
Almost
any sizeable wholesaler can buy as good as, or better than WM these days.
So, even smaller stores who buy through wholesalers end up with the
benefits. It's not that hard to torture the manufacturers for better
pricing.

I don't know about WM anywhere but here, but in our 2 stores, the produce
is
really lousy, and much of the meat is treated with some sort of
tenderizing
agent. It's right on the label. I don't recall the name of the stuff, and
it's probably safe, but who cares? So, if you happen to like fruit &
vegetables, and meat without stuff in it, you have to go to two stores to
do
your shopping. As soon as that happens, you're not saving money any more.

Our Walmart doesn't carry many groceries yet. But the stuff they do
carry is more expensive than the local grocery stores. The Walmarts
that I've been in that do carry produce don't seem to take very good
care of the stuff. A lot of brown lettuce and wrinkled peppers.

Here, the fishing tackle's just as cheap at Gander Mountain, Galyan's and
Dick's, and the selection is MUCH better. Motor oil is cheaper at Advanced
Auto Parts. Batteries are cheap anywhere if you take 3 seconds to clip the
endless stream of Duracell coupons. I'll go to WM for some stuff - they had
a great selection of Igloo coolers last summer, and they were much cheaper
than at Wegman's.

But meanwhile, K-Mart polished up their stores and they are excellent. In 4
visits, every single person I spoke to knew where things were, and behaved
as if they WANTED customers. At WM, they act like you're bothering them if
you ask for the location of something exotic, like Rubbermaid storage
containers.