Wal Mart

.....will open here on 8/19. I can't wait!
It seems like every day I have a customer or two come in my Store and make the comment that we must be sad that Wal-Mart is coming, as it will hurt us. On the contrary.....

We were here before Home Depot and Sears, and they both sell vacuums. HD does absolutely no service (you have to either return your defective machinery to the store, or mail it back to the company). Sears charges a $39.95 deposit for anything not working, and then that is applied to the cost of the repair, if it isn't warranty. In both cases, if you have to mail off your product, the turnaround time is about 3 weeks.

When each of these stores opened, we saw a 20% increase in revenue that year. The only vacuum cleaner that the three of us have in common for sale is the Dyson, and they are price-governed, so the price is the same at all of our stores. Otherwise, we choose to sell diferent products. So I don't directly compete with either of these stores, we offer different things. The same will happen when Wal-Mart is here. My vacuum sales will not change dramatically.

What will go up are are sales on supplies and parts. The way Wal-Mart works, is that they negotiate a ridiculously low price from a vacuum manufacturer on several million vacuums. At the same time, they also negotiate for bags, filters, and belts for these vacs. Once those vacs and parts are gone, they tend not to restock, unless they get another good deal. So, except for a few very common parts and supplies, Wal-Mart doesn't carry much. So, you might buy a Dirt Devil vacuum from WM this week, and go back in 3 months to get bags, but they are out and won't get more. We try to stock every bag, belt, and filter that we know is out there.......and if we don't have it, and they still make it, we can get it. So the more vacuums WM sells in Blairsville, the more potential customers for "after the sale" items there are out there for us.

Service is the other issue. John has been doing this for 26 years, so if it is fixable, he can do it. We actually make more doing a $7.50 belt change on a Bissell, than we would if we sold the vac in the first place!

In the newspaper this week, it was mentioned that WM expects between 20,000 and 40,000 shoppers the first week! Most of these people don't live here, so the traffic in the county will increase. It's good in one way, because all of us small businesses will get more exposure and potentially more customers. But, as the writer to the newspaper mentioned, intersections such as the one at Pat Colwell road and 129N, just aren't capable of handling the traffic (no light)......so I have a feeling that will be a mess.

Also, the fact that there are 300 employees at WM has to be a plus for this area. It's only 3 miles from my house......and John says that if he can't find me, he knows to look there.......lol.

Hint of the day: Filters on bagless vacs. Did you know that some bagless vacs that have replaceable filters, have washable ones? Even those like the Hoover, Bissell, Royal, etc., that come with those pleated HEPA ones that are not washable, may have replacement filters that are? Be sure and read the package carefully the next time you buy a filter for your bagless machine. You will be much better off buying a washable filter for a couple extra dollars, than buying the disposable kind every year!

Have a great day!

Cathy