Wal-Mart's Current Market Conditions

Essay by myworkisyourworkUniversity, Bachelor'sA, January 2010

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What should the largest employer and biggest company in the world Wal-Mart have to fear in the business world today? That is the question a lot of critics of the retail giant like to pose frequently. The market structure of the economy today means that even companies as large as Wal-Mart need to be consistent and careful of their competitors, pricing, technologies, productivity, cost structures, price elasticity of demand, supply and demand analysis, and the impact of government regulations. If they are successful in balancing all of these elements, however, Wal-Mart can insure that the profits that they have previously enjoyed will continue to expand in the future.

Market StructureWithin the market structure at Wal-Mart Supercenters, the ability of the company to sell discount items ranging from top named vacuums to sporting apparel, on top of its ability to offer a solid variety of grocery products to its customers makes.

As part of an oligopoly market in the retail world, Wal-Mart is a double threat to its competition. The ability of Wal-Mart to sell an incredible variety has knocked competitors like K-mart and Target on their heels and made each of these retail giants to recreate their own marketing structure to remain competitive. Conversely, as Wal-Mart has continually made its way into urban and suburban areas; small independently owned grocery and clothing stores are going out of business, unless they carry product(s) that are unique or hard to find items that a giant retail chain like Wal-Mart carries (Hoffman, 2008). An example of Wal-Markets marketing structure wreaking havoc on its competition would be its effect on the grocery store chain Win-Dixie. According to Jeffery Hoffman's article titled Wal-Mart and Urban Food- at- Home Markets, in 1988 Win-Dixie had captured a 2.5% urban market share, however by 2005 with Wal-Mart...