From an article I wrote up (with the help of multiple sources) and submitted to Slashdot:

 

Wal-Mart has announced that it will be soon closing its doors on layaways everywhere due to online shopping

 

and the increasing costs of running an efficient layaway and stated that it would offer zero-intrest for

 

six months to new customers on its own and Discover credit cards and twelve months for existing consumers

 

as compensation for the lack of layaway.

 

On Wensday Wal-Mart's stock had went up but after the announcement was made on Thursday its stock had went

 

down again on Friday according to the NYSE.

 

In midst of the corperate chaos Wal-Mart has been moving in to purchase a banking company which some fear

 

Wal-Mart is planning to start its own chain of banks nationwide though Wal-Mart had stated that it was for the purpose of making credit card transactions easier.

 

Though Wal-Mart has given consumers until November 19th to place their final layaway angry customers are

 

already posting all over the internet in an outrage against Wal-Mart's actions as carelessness, having no

 

sympathy for the consumers and threating to take their business to other major retail outlets such as K-Mart or Target.

 

As a response K-Mart had seized the opportunity to tell everyone about their offering of layaway services for nearly fourty years and would continue to offer layaways in 1,300 of its 1,400 stores in spite of Wal-Mart's recent business move.

 

Read here for more details:

 

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlehybrid.aspx?type=comktNews&rpc=33&storyid=2006-09-14T200800Z_01_N14255123_RTRIDST_0_RETAIL-WALMART-LAYAWAY-UPDATE-2.XML

Wal-Mart is going to own everything and be one huge monopoly. Wal-Mart was cool when Sam Walton was around and everything in his store was made in America, now everything is from China. Sam is rolling over in his grave.

Don't even get me started on wal mart.

http://umbs.at.infoseek.co.jp/Shopping/K%20Mart.jpg

 

I would take my business to KMart but unfortunately its tough to find a KMart

 

where I live anymore because WalMart ran them out of the area.

I shop at wal mart occasionally, but I try to avoid it if I can. I like superstore, prices are better and its not as busy.

This actually makes me mad. I always put about 3 Xmas layaways on at Walmart. I actually think that Walmart is going to lose business over this. Yes, a lot of low income people do this, but everyone does most of their shopping on Black Friday. They are going to be hurting for sure this year. People just arent going to have the cash. I will drive the extra 30 miles to find a Kmart and a Target because of this. Walmart has monopolized everything, but you can only push the consumer so far.

Well Wal-Mart pretty much gives their credit card to anyone who wants one.

Just a way to make more money, which is why every business is started.

Layaway takes up room and I guess Wal-Mart has found cost more money than it brings in.

Sam Walton was a man of the people, and Lee Scott is a businessman (Logistics)

This is true the Walmart Layaway departement is closing. Unfortunately i work in the layaway department. Nov 19th is the last day to put Christmas lwys on and Dec 5,6,7,8 are the pickup dates. I have had many customers call Bentonville directly. I don't really agree with what they are doing but this is just one change of many. Also Walmart associates will be getting uniforms instead of the smocks. If u ever been to Best Buy that is how we will look. All layaway associates have until Feb 15th to find a new position or can we say LAID OFF. Apparently they did some analysis and they found out that layaway wasn't making enough to cover its costs. Simple business mgmt 101 cut ur losses and move on.

This thread is going good but may need to end up in the outhouse.

People get pretty heated when Wal-Mart is the topic.

I guess we will wait and see what comes of it.

Simple business mgmt 101 cut ur losses and move on.

This was never the vision of Sam Walton. The layaway program probably never made much money besides the markup of the product. He knew this and thought it to be ok because it still brought in some business. As well as it kept on bringing that customer back. Which in turn always gives you a chance of that customer buying something else in YOUR store. Plus, it gave the poorer people an easier way of purchasing a product. For making multi billions a year. Wal-Mart might be able to afford a couple million.

This was never the vision of Sam Walton.

Well like I said above, Lee Scott is in charge.

 

Guess Lee sees things differently than sam did

Wal-Mart is going to own everything and be one huge monopoly. Wal-Mart was cool when Sam Walton was around and everything in his store was made in America, now everything is from China. Sam is rolling over in his grave.

Walmart has a lot of competition from Tesco corp.. walmart has america, Tesco has the UK, france, most of the rest of europe, a large foothold in japan and asia, as well as areas around the meditteranean.

 

they are branching i think to the US soon as well to start a trial store.

This was never the vision of Sam Walton.

I'll agree with ya on that one. Ever since he died it seems like the company is no longer geared towards the customer. All they want to do is pad their pockets. We all know this but our managers tell us different. I only work there because i need a job to pay my bills if i had my way I'd be working at Target but the nearest target is 20miles and the gas is just too much for me right now. I'll stick with the 16miles a day and just deal with it. The people i work with are great but the company sucks. In the next few months to half a year u will see lots of changes in the company. I've already mentioned one of them in a previous post.

Walmart has a lot of competition from Tesco corp.. walmart has america, Tesco has the UK, france, most of the rest of europe, a large foothold in japan and asia, as well as areas around the meditteranean.

 

they are branching i think to the US soon as well to start a trial store.

That will be interesting to see cause right now Walmart has no competition in the American market. We don't care we will match any price then they start to cut our hours. Right now the company is invested 75% in the international markets especially China. As of now my Walmart no longer hires full time it is all part time now. So all i say is bring it on Tesco sounds like a great idea i could use a change. :thumbsup:

Walmart has a lot of competition from Tesco corp.. walmart has america, Tesco has the UK, france, most of the rest of europe, a large foothold in japan and asia, as well as areas around the meditteranean.

 

they are branching i think to the US soon as well to start a trial store.

Well I really don't see Tesco pulling it off in the US. There are already so many others fighting for a share of the market vs Wal-Mart.

 

But Wal-Mart seems to but doing ok in Tesco's home. Mind you Asda isn't going to take the market from Tesco anytime soon, but it shocked me that they were able to stay a float.

 

Wasn't Tesco making plans to pull out of Germany as well? I can't remember if it was them or Carrefour.

 

Which brings them up Carrefour and Wal-Mart are both growing in China, but I believe there is enough market there for both of them