{"id":323,"date":"2011-09-13T08:17:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-13T12:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom.chainstoreguide.com\/2011\/09\/how-walmarts-scattered-merchandising-policies-helped-save-kmart\/"},"modified":"2011-09-13T08:17:00","modified_gmt":"2011-09-13T12:17:00","slug":"how-walmarts-scattered-merchandising-policies-helped-save-kmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/2011\/09\/how-walmarts-scattered-merchandising-policies-helped-save-kmart\/","title":{"rendered":"How Walmart\u2019s Scattered Merchandising Policies Helped Save Kmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
When Walmart news hits the New York Times, as it often does, it\u2019s generally big news.\u00a0 One of the latest Walmart items to be reported along with \u2018all the news that\u2019s fit to print<\/i>\u2019, was a note that the retail giant plans to bring back its layaway program for the upcoming holiday season.\u00a0 The company sees this action as a key to re-establishing its reputation as a haven for financially challenged shoppers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Walmart dismissed its traditional layaway policy in 2006.\u00a0 At the time the company claimed that the popularity of credit and debit cards along with very profitable gift cards made layaway obsolete.\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n
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Shortly after, times changed.\u00a0 When the recession hit, banks were forced to tighten loan policies.\u00a0 Many consumers found themselves unable to continue paying almost usurious interest rates to credit card companies and pretty much had to change their ways, especially in light of rising unemployment and the financial chaos surrounding them.\u00a0 Thus credit cards have actually declined in popularity as amassing debt has actually been replaced by saving for many American families.<\/span><\/div>\n
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When Walmart did away with its layaway policies pre-recession, it also abandoned a significant number and class of customers.\u00a0 At the time of Walmart\u2019s announcement, I remember the shock stated by a number of coworkers, most of whom likely did not employ layaway plans.\u00a0 They simply noted, with considerable empathy, that many consumers had relied on such plans for years, especially during the holiday season.\u00a0 This was an emotional attachment by consumers as they saw layaway plans as affording the ability to give the gifts of choice to loved ones or to obtain essentials, such as replacing damaged major appliances.<\/span><\/div>\n

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Walmart\u2019s exit from this market was good news for the perennially struggling Kmart.\u00a0 On Walmart\u2019s announcement of the withdrawal of its layaway plan, Kmart promoted its determination to extend its layaway policy to its customers with no end in sight.\u00a0 At that announcement, a number of my coworkers thought Kmart had instituted the equivalent of the ultimate loyalty policy to many of its customers.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Kmart has continued to institute merchandising initiatives aimed at increasing its total customer base, in part by focusing on key socio-economic classes of customers it sees as its own, as part of its struggle to survive.\u00a0 A good example of this is based on the realization of the increasingly rapid increase in the nation\u2019s Hispanic population.\u00a0 Recently the company launched a first of its kind, fully customized YouTube channel in Spanish. The channel consists of\u00a0novelas or soap operas that include an end story, called\u00a0Madres y Comadres.<\/b><\/em><\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/em>The series focuses on two Latina<\/st1:city> women and the challenges they face raising a family in America<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place>while enjoying their Hispanic\u00a0culture and maintaining their family heritage. <\/span><\/div>\n
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Layaway is just one of many merchandising policies that Walmart has had to reconsider.\u00a0 The company tried to compete with Target\u2019s \u2018cheap chic\u2019 image by upgrading its apparel lines.\u00a0 This resulted in dismal results, confused customers and the dismissal of the executive Walmart brought in to upgrade its brands and its image.\u00a0 Recently, Walmart began to restock many of the skus it had systematically deemed inefficient and essential for removal from inventory.\u00a0 These restocks were largely determined as an answer to disappointing domestic financials over many consecutive quarters.<\/span><\/div>\n
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The degree of success of Walmart\u2019s layaway policy reversal will be determined quickly as the company must determine if layaway is a keeper after the coming holiday season.\u00a0 While layaway may seem as necessary as ever as the country fights a second recession, Kmart may just have earned the company enough loyalty through good will while maintaining its layaway policies through good years and bad.<\/span><\/div>\n

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For more information on the Discount & Specialty Retailers database click here<\/a>.<\/span><\/div>\n

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Arthur Rosenberg, Senior Editor\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
Arthur has worked at Chain Store Guide for 20 years. He received a B.A. degree from City College of New York and attained a master\u2019s degree in electronic communications from Brooklyn College. Please contact him<\/a> if you have questions or comments.<\/span><\/div>\n

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When Walmart news hits the New York Times, as it often does, it\u2019s generally big news.\u00a0 One of the latest Walmart items to be reported along with \u2018all the news that\u2019s fit to print\u2019, was a note that the retail giant plans to bring back its layaway program for the upcoming holiday season.\u00a0 The company… Continue reading How Walmart\u2019s Scattered Merchandising Policies Helped Save Kmart<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"post-template-no-sidebar.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6,5],"class_list":["post-323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discount-specialty","tag-csg-old","tag-insight","entry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}