The Decline of Walmart

Any one shopper’s experience with a retailer is subjective and relating one bad experience or another is simply anecdotal. The problem for retailers is when too many customers relate these anecdotal bad experiences. In an age of customer review websites and social media, those bad experiences can be the cigarette thrown from a car window into dry foliage. It doesn’t take long for those one-star ratings to change public perception.

This may never have been a concern of stalwart retailer Walmart, with its enormous market share and generally good reputation. Aside from the eroding market share at the hands of competitor Amazon, the Walmart brand has been able to dominate the retail grocery space with mammoth buying power and very competitive prices.  This has led customers like me to relieve ourselves of tens of thousands of dollars over the years on both grocery items and non-food purchases. The savings were sufficient to ignore the odd item missing from the shelves or the long lines or lack of cashiers.

That has changed recently and it appears that Walmart is not as customer-centric in their corporate philosophy as they once were. For me, it started with a box of cereal.

For many years, I have purchased Post Raisin Bran at Walmart on a weekly basis. I like the product more than other brands and have bought it like clockwork at Walmart. Other area grocery retailers charge as much as 40% more for the same size. It makes sense that a conscientious shopper, with an eye on price and budget, would choose the grocer who can deliver a good product at the lowest cost. That was always the case up until about two and a half months ago.  All of a sudden, Post Raisin Bran disappeared from Walmart shelves. (and their website)

I asked an employee, working in the cereal aisle, if I could speak to a grocery manager about the missing cereal. While I waited, no less than three other people came down the aisle searching for the same thing. I made small-talk with each one of them and they were all confused about the missing Raisin Bran.  One guy said he was making a separate trip to another grocer just to buy that one item. Mind you, this was during a 10-minute time frame, so you can imagine how many people shop for Post Raisin Bran at all the nation’s Walmart’s.

The manager assured me that this was just a “distribution center problem” and that it was temporary. A couple of days later, I went to a local Walmart Super Center and searched for the Raisin Bran. Nothing. Speaking to yet another manager, I was told it was temporarily out. I bought a generic Walmart brand and went on my way.

You may wonder why this story is titled “The Decline of Walmart.” Isn’t that a little dramatic because of a certain brand of cereal is missing from the shelves of two stores?  It would be if that was the end of the story, but there is more; much more.

After the Post Raisin Bran had been missing from the shelves of two local Walmart’s and the company’s website, I decided to contact Post Consumer Brands. If this was a “distribution center problem,” then it is unlikely it would last more than two months. That should be intolerable to management. Post told me that Walmart had stopped carrying their Raisin Bran product. What? According to Post Consumer Brands; “We were recently informed Wal-Mart will no longer be carrying Raisin Bran.”  They suggested I try other area retailers who carry their raisin bran.

It would appear that two Walmart managers have misinformation or incomplete information at their fingertips. I once again bought the Walmart generic brand, which wasn’t bad. I would still prefer the Post product. After a couple of weeks of buying the Walmart raisin bran, it too, disappeared from the shelves. It seemed like Walmart was funneling customers into the more expensive Kellogg product, which I was not a fan of. Unless I was going to start shopping other grocery stores for just this one product I need, I am forced to buy the Kellogg’s Raisin Bran as an interim measure.

Concurrently, with the missing raisin bran problem, there were other items I buy weekly that were missing from the shelves at Walmart. A Healthy Choice meal (Healthy Choice Simply Steamers Honey Balsamic Chicken) that I purchased weekly disappeared. I spoke with an employee in the frozen foods section of the Super Store and he was able to get that meal back in stock in the freezer for about a week and then it disappeared again. In another case, a Marie Calendar product, had a dramatic price increase and the Thomas brand of raisin-cinnamon bagels I buy weekly, began to be sparsely stocked with only half of what I need available on any given day. This is in two different Walmart stores.

Today was the last straw. I went to the local Walmart Neighborhood Grocery store. The only raisin bran on the shelf was Kellogg’s. The Walmart-brand of raisin bran was nowhere in sight. It looked like the label on the shelf was now missing as well.

There were only a couple of packages of bagels hidden far back on the bottom shelf. (half of what I needed).  Another frozen product, that I buy weekly, SmartMade brand Chicken Fried Cauliflower Rice Bowl, had been removed from the freezer shelf altogether and is no longer stocked. Who makes these decisions?

Add to this, one available cashier on many visits at the neighborhood market and slow lines at the Super Center, and the glean of Walmart is fading.

Contacting their executive office about the increasing prices on several frozen foods brought this response: “If a customer finds a lower price on a matching item at another retailer, we encourage them to tell their local store manager.” Addressing concerns with local managers has been tried and failed multiple times. I complained to management at the Super Center about missing gallon size drinking water a half dozen times to no effect. Not one gallon of drinking water was on the shelves over more than a dozen visits. Complaints about the missing Post Raisin Bran brought erroneous information. Complaints to the produce people, about having to throw away every third banana because they are all one giant bruise, produced no improvements.

All in all, the Walmart brand has been tarnished. If it is tarnished in the eyes of one customer, with the anecdotal experiences of one customer, then it is missing the mark for many others. These experiences don’t exist in a vacuum. As I visit those other grocers, to purchase my Post Raisin Bran, I may notice other food items that are attractive to pick up while I am there. As that happens more and more, Walmart ends up with less of my food dollar spend. Eventually, I don’t walk into a Walmart anymore and my experience is shared on social media and in reviews and on my blog and others share similar experiences as well.

It is those other customers as well, who were searching for their favorite brand of raisin bran that disappeared from the shelf, who also discover other retailers who suit their needs. Eventually Walmart notices the attrition, but hasn’t a clue as to why. Ignoring the input of customers can be a disastrous decision by a retailer. Consumers have choices and bad experiences make those decisions easier.

UPDATE: 8/22/2019 – Went to four different Walmart stores yesterday, looking for common CR 2032 batteries, some of my favorite Smart Made frozen meals and Thomas cinnamon/raisin bagels. Left empty-handed, except for three packages of the bagels. Also searched for several Healthy Choice meals, which were missing from the shelves. The only alternative is to pay more at other local grocery chains. I’m getting used to seeing “temporarily out of stock” or just an empty space where the product I have bought for years used to be. They don’t seem to be too concerned about the numbers of customers inconvenienced by dropping Post Raisin Bran from their inventory.

UPDATE: 2/23/2020 – Please see this new post: https://www.krdouglas.com/2020/02/24/pushing-back-worked-walmart-stocks-post-raisin-bran/    Your voices were heard. Walmart has returned Post Raisin Bran to the shelves.