Nature of Wal-Mart Industry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 78

Nature of Wal-Mart Industry - Essay Example According to Fortune Global 500 in 2014, Wal-Mart was the biggest company by revenue and the largest employer in the private sector worldwide. The number of employees stood at 2.2 million making it is the most valuable company in the world. The operations of Wal-Mart are in three divisions namely Sams Club, Wal-Mart US, and Wal-Mart International with nine retail formats. The formats are supercenters, general merchandise, food and drugs, stores, bodegas, membership warehouse Clubs, cash and carry stores, apparel stores, restaurants, and soft discount stores. The Wal-Mart US is the largest with sales amounting to $258 billion operating discount stores, Neighborhood Markets, and Supercenters. Some of the Wal-Mart stores are located in Argentina, Canada, Brazil, and the UK. The company also involves global eCommerce, which is involved in online sales in the US with headquarters in San Francisco. The main competitors of Wal-Mart in North America include departmental stores such as Kmart, Target, Meijer, and Publix, which sell similar products. One of the main competitor is Target (TGT) in the retail market. Wal-Mart competes directly with Target (TGT) a discount retailer, which offers its goods and services at low prices. Just like Wal-Mart, TGT provides a wide range of products especially staple consumer goods such as household goods, clothing, food, and groceries. TGT also offers discount to its customers to attract them, which is also a common method in Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart sells products at lower prices to attract low-income consumers while TGT targets goes for affluent customers with their high quality merchandise. Both Target and Wal-Mart try to keep their profit margins high through cost reduction measures. Other competitors include Giant Tiger and the Real Canadian Superstore competing for the retail market. Wal-Mart also competes with Mexicos retail stores such as Soriana and Commercial Mexicana.