
Walmart making changes to bridge the income equality gap - jhatax
https://work.qz.com/1094309/walmart-yes-walmart-is-making-changes-that-could-help-reduce-income-inequality-in-america/
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jhatax
The final paragraph of this piece sums up the challenge Walmart is facing with
this change:

“If you look at Walmart, over its 50 year existence, they’ve always prided
themselves on saying our employees are going to be the lowest paid,” says
Schlademan. “Now they’ve changed their business model.”

While Walmart’s stock hasn’t returned to its pre-2015 heyday, things are
looking up for the world’s largest retailer. If I were in the Digital
leadership team, I would push for a partnership with Google Home to compete
with the Alexa-enabled retail channel that Amazon has established, sans much
fanfare (my opinion). As of last week, Google announced a partnership with
Target, but Walmart (and Jet.com) have the more optimized supply chain and
better prices. Maybe Google could negotiate a better deal with Target, which
would be why they went with them vs. Walmart.

Amazon is practically giving Alexa devices away in a manner reminiscent of how
Gillette gave their razors away. Alexa plus Amazon getting into every retail
segment plus Amazon branded items plus FBA plus Prime plus ... is a multi-
prong approach that will require a number of companies to band together to
counter. From my vantage point, no one company can compete against this
Goliath / Ser Gregor alone.

