Yena

** What are the costs that arise from Wal-Mart's motto: "Always low prices"? **


Unique Audience Feedback
My father's friend who is a business major (Chul-jin Ahn) Met on Sunday 5/22 at NamSeoul Grace Church Translated (not word for word) from Korean to English:

This phenomenon is not as common in Korea because Korea does not have enough population to be in need of thousands of supercenters such as E-Mart and Homeplus.

Economic terms that may help me understand supercenters 1) **Price spin**: creating a strong impression of low prices 2) **Expectation shift**: any business that far exceeds its competitors in one expectation increases the importance to consumers of that expectation (e.g. Consumers' perception that a certain store's prices are much lower has increased the importance of prices for consumers) 3) **Mitigation**: If a business meets an expectation very well, consumers forgive that business' low performance in other expecations such as good customer service and convenience (e.g. Consumers don't care as much about low quality or poor service because they believe a certain stores' prices are very low) 4) **Opening price point**: a very low-priced, high-velocity item placed in a high-visibility spot in each store section; this creates a perception that since this first item is so low-priced, the other items in the section are as well.

Reading Plan
 1. **Life Inside America's Largest Dysfunctional Family: Working for Wal-Mart** Ellen Israel Rosen //New Labor Forum// <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Vol. 14, No. 1 (Spring, 2005), pp. 31-39 <span style="display: block; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Published by: __ [|Joseph S. Murphy Institute, City University of New York] __  <span style="display: block; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40342519- This article is accessible online whenever I need it. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">2. **The Wal-mart Effect (book)** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"> - I have purchased it in early April.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">3. Fishman, Charles. "**Wal-Mart You Don't Know** | Fast Company." FastCompany.com - Where ideas and people meet | Fast Company. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2011. <http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.html>. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> - This article is accessible online whenever I need it. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">4. **Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price by Robert Greenwald (a full documentary)** <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hftb_DVuelo  <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">5. "**Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Key Statistics**," Yahoo! Finance, last modified May 13, 2011, http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=WMT. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Tahoma; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">6. T.A. Frank, "**A Brief History of Wal-Mart**," Washington Monthly, April 2006.