US supermarket behemoth Wal-Mart is pulling down the shutters with a new store policy not to share information about sales of its food, drinks, clothes and medications. The sales data, collected by electronic scanners in the grocery store aisles, will cease to become available at the end of this July.
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With 2,634 stores and supercentres, Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world. Since its inception in Bentonville, Arkansas, nearly 40 years ago, the chain has grown rapidly, and now controls 75% of the US supermarket sector, enjoying a virtual monopoly of the discount sales sector.
The decision is certain to create waves among the numerous industries that supply products to Wal-Mart, as information on the breakdown of its sales has long proved a useful marketing tool. Wall Street analysts such as AC Nielsen are also expected to criticise the decision, as they study information collected from the scanners to form a picture of the bashful retailer’s operations.
Spokesman for the group, Bill Wertz, explained that the decision was made to protect Wal-Mart’s competitive interests: “It made no business sense for us to continue. We can learn as much as we were learning from this information through other sources, without having to disclose our own sales.
“We did receive a payment. But we decided that despite that payment, we didn’t get as much out of it as our competitors did.”
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By GlobalData
