[SOLVED] Walmart: A Retail Giant's Impact on Small Businesses

This assignment aims to evaluate the impact of major retailing giants like Walmart on smaller retailers, examining Walmart's influence on the commercial market, international marketing strategies, marketing trends, and cultural differences affecting marketing at Walmart. The research questions focus on the effects of Walmart's dominance and whether it adheres to its corporate social responsibility. The assignment draws from various references, including sources about Walmart's history, its impact on Iowa small-town retail, consumers' perspectives, and the organization's welfare effects in Nicaragua.

Running head: WALMART: A RETAIL BULLY
Walmart: A Retail Bully
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1WALMART: A RETAIL BULLY
Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................2
Organisation:..........................................................................................................................2
Issues:.....................................................................................................................................3
Reason for Selection:.............................................................................................................3
Research Objective:...................................................................................................................4
Research Question:.....................................................................................................................4
Hypothesis:.................................................................................................................................5
References:.................................................................................................................................6

2WALMART: A RETAIL BULLY
Introduction:
The retail store has been a significant contributor to the annual GDP of any company,
and it is visible from the fact that in the year 2016 11.4 % of the total GDP of United
Kingdom (UK) was contributed by the retail industry (Rhodes & Brien 2017). So, the retail
industry deserves the attention of the researchers and scholars. Walmart is considerably the
leader in the retail industry currently. However, several types of research have cited that the
local retailers suffer when Walmart enters their geographical domain. The devised paper will
contribute to the discussed topic and will evaluate the impact that major retail organisation
cites on the small retailers. To achieve the above mentioned target, the paper will evaluate
Walmart’s effect on the small retailers.
Organisation:
The subject of the research is Walmart Inc., an American retail MNC (multinational
corporation). The company was established in 1962 by Sam Walton and is headquartered in
Bentonville, Arkansas and was incorporated in the year 1969 ("Our History" 2018). The
deemed organisation owns 11,718 stores in 28 countries as dated on 31st January 2018
("About Us" 2018). The organisation operates by the name of Asda in the UK (Walmart
acquired Asda Stores Ltd.in 1999) ("Our History - ASDA Corporate" 2018). The organisation
employees over 2.3 million globally which is the most by any private organisation. Currently,
the company serves around 26 billion members and customers in a week at little higher than
11000 units under various collaboration and banners, and its sales figure have crossed $482
billion marks (“About Us” 2018). The deemed organisation is a leader in sustainability,
corporate philanthropy and employment opportunity. Stankevičiūtė, Grunda and Bartkus
(2012) in their published article have put an effort to determine the strategic plans of the
Walmart. The primary focus of the article has been laid on the business decision making of

3WALMART: A RETAIL BULLY
the organisation and how it had assessed them in earning a cost leadership globally in the
retail industry. It can be evaluated from various other resources that the organisation offers
the requirement of the consumers at a price that no others retailing service can, to earn cost
leadership and hence competitive advantage in the market.
Issues:
Kenneth Stone, an economics professor at the Iowa State University, claimed in his
paper ‘Farm foundation’, published in the year 1997 that there is a high probability that small
towns may lose around 50% of the small retail stores on the introduction of Walmart in very
short span of time (Artz and Stone 2012). In 2012, the announcement of Walmart in India
also generated a lot of protest by the small retailers (Cohen 2013). Hence, the most
significant issue associated with the Walmart is the threat it poses to the small retailers. One
of the additional issues was brought into light by Michelson (2013) in the article published by
him. The author targeted farmers from an American country Nicaragua and claimed that
though the overview suggests that farmers get benefitted from the introduction of Walmart,
however an insight in the discussed situation shows contradicting results (Michelson 2013).
Other issues like exploitation of the employees and controversies related to the supply-chain
management are also associated with the Walmart. One of the However, the paper will limit
itself to issues with the small retailers.
Reason for Selection:
Chekwa, Martin and Wells (2014) in their journal paper have discussed the
customers’ perspective towards Walmart and how it has enabled the organisation to earn
competitive advantage in the market. The paper cited the importance that Walmart offers to
its customer queries and needs. It has also been evaluated that the organisation adopts
innovative methods for decision making towards the change and reinventing itself. The

4WALMART: A RETAIL BULLY
organisation also changes its strategy in accordance with the market and the cultural ethics of
its stores. Various other factors are also involved in the success of the Walmart globally and
evaluating those will enable the readers to plan a successful strategy. The list of issues and
controversies that had associated themselves with the organisation is also very long, but the
organisation sustained through it due to its smart strategic management. Considering all the
factors discussed above does offer a broad scope for research and evaluation. Additionally,
the organisation has faced criticism from time to time, even though it emerged as the most
prominent leader in the retail industry and hence the reason for selection.
Research Objective:
 To evaluate the impact of major retailing stores on small ones.
 To make detailed examine of the impact of Walmart in the commercial market.
 To examine strategy which attracts the customers.
 To consider the role of marketing in the company’s success.
 To assess role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in strategic marketing and its
impact on business.
Research Question:
 What is the impact of major retailing giants on the smaller ones?
 How is Walmart influencing the commercial market?
 What international marketing strategies have been applied to Walmart?
 What marketing trends and technologies are undergoing at Walmart?
 How have the cultural differences affected the marketing at Walmart?
 Whether Walmart is following its CSR or not?

5WALMART: A RETAIL BULLY
Hypothesis:
 Walmart make difficulty for small retailers to survive in the market and forced
them to go out of the market and letting to quit in global market. I believe that
Walmart has a monetary dominance and good marketing strategy.

6WALMART: A RETAIL BULLY
References:
About Us. (2018). Corporate.walmart.com. Retrieved 26 February 2018, from
https://corporate.walmart.com/our-story
Artz, G.M. and Stone, K.E., 2012. Revisiting Walmart’s impact on Iowa small-town retail: 25
years later. Economic Development Quarterly, 26(4), pp.298-310.
Chekwa, E., Martin, J. and Wells, K., 2014. Riding on the waves of sustained competitive
advantage: consumers’ perspectives on Walmart Corporation. International Journal of the
Academic Business World, 8(2), pp.13-25.
Cohen, A.J., 2013. Supermarkets in India: Struggles over the organization of agricultural
markets and food supply chains. U. Miami L. Rev., 68, p.19.
Michelson, H.C., 2013. Small farmers, NGOs, and a Walmart world: Welfare effects of
supermarkets operating in Nicaragua. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 95(3),
pp.628-649.
Our History. (2018). Corporate.walmart.com. Retrieved 26 February 2018, from
https://corporate.walmart.com/our-story/our-history
Rhodes, C., & Brien, P. (2017). The retail industry: statistics and policy (p. 1-21). United
Kingdom: www.parliament.uk/commons-library. Retrieved from
http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN06186/SN06186.pdf
Stankevičiūtė, E., Grunda, R. and Bartkus, E.V., 2012. Pursuing a cost leadership strategy
and business sustainability objectives: Walmart case study. Economics and
Management, 17(3), pp.1200-1206.