Walmart Puts Doritos, Pepsi In The Toy Aisle
Reader Edd was shopping at his local Walmart when he noticed something annoying. There's a Pepsi & Dorito display in the middle of the toy aisle. Not at the end of the toy aisle. In the middle of it. Update: Mystery solved.
Edd says:
Our local Wal-Wart put up a Pepsico soda and chips display in the center of the toy department. As you can see it isn't an accidental deal. It is exactly in the middle of the length of the aisle, and between the girl and the boy toys. In other words, dead center of their toy department. It is amongst the Nerf, and across from My Little Pony.
My wife asked, and was told that this was an order directly from a central office...
There appear to be some DVDs next to the snacks, which we suppose is the rationale. What do you think? Is this cool with you?
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Comments:
Sounds more like a lazy manager than a deliberate marketing ploy.
I mean, it makes sense in a 'impulse buy' and sales perspective, but besides that it also seems to call into question the responsibility of such a decision.
@PSUSkier: Strange, I took the opposite stance. The topic involves Wal-Mart, and I don't shop there, so I'm cool with it. They can do whatever they want, and I don't have to deal with it.
I've seen cross product placement among grocery stores. Supplies for pizza in with dough at the bakery. Popcorn from the deli and candy with DVDs. Of course the cereal aisle is littered with cheap toys on j-hooks - this is fairly standard stuff though.
Is this wrong? Morally it is. Is it wrong for Walmart's bottom line? Not likely.
I went to another Walmart that did this last weekend, except the chips and pop were on the end of the aisle rather than the middle. There were a bunch of DVD's next to the food.
I don't think it's really that much of a problem. Kids might see the soda and chips while walking to the toy aisle anyway. It's not as though parents can't say "no, you can't have that today".
I don't see this as a big deal. There's always been candy and goldfish crackers on the racks and endcaps of the toy aisles.
I tell my kids "The store puts those there to trick you into buying them. They know most parents will get them if the kids ask. But I won't, so don't ask."
Case closed.
Oh, it's no mistake! The stores are laid out exactly as corporate dictates.
This underscores my dislike for Wal-Mart. They will do ANYTHING to sell ANYTHING. There is no concern for childhood obesity, no concern for the environment, no concerns for their employees well-being, etc.
How people can show them and stuff their carts escapes me!
I don't see any controversy here at all. I don't even think this could qualify as a mole hill much less make more of it. This company is just marketing to its customers in ways it believes will result in incremental sales. What's wrong with selling toys next to food instead? It's not like if this were, for some facist reason, banned, people couldn't just get their toys/food in another aisle/store. It's not exactly healthy food, but obviously that is where the parents come in. Hopefully, consumerist isn't arguing the government should jump in and dictate how we can buy, and stores can market, legal products in such a specific way. That would realy discredit consumerist.
When profit is the main motive, you can't have morals equivalent with that profit. If Wal-Mart can make more money by doing this, they're within their right to do so. They can and should leave the moral perspective (Johnny and Susie shouldn't eat junk food) to the parents.
Oh, no!
Not... marketing! At a store? Zounds!
Walmart is starting to look more and more like that superstore from the movie "Idiocracy".
By no means am I cool with this.
Looks very intentional and highly unacceptable.
While Wal-Mart is certainly a part of this, I can assure you Pepsico PAID to have that display put there.
And it doesn't really bother me, but then I'm not a parent.
Why do I rob banks?...because thats where the money is"Willie Sutton....
Kids have always been bribed by toys and snacks...makes sense to me...
Mine had this last night. Newburgh IN store it just opened at the beginning of august and employees have said its a test market layout. Not sure about the aisle having this but it is like that there.
Those dvds were in the same spot, it was a bunch of disney DVDs like A Goofy Movie, the old Witch mountains, the pirates movies and Enchanted (FS) I didn't really think anything of it but remember looking at the price of the doritos and there were 3.50 and usually they are 2.50 so I thought they were expensive.
@Smashville_makes his own comments at home: Agreed. He didn't have enough shelf space near snacks and DVDs, and s/he needed to get them out and sold by the sell by's or to clear out stock.
@Scott4: "Hopefully, consumerist isn't arguing the government should jump in and dictate how we can buy, and stores can market, legal products in such a specific way. That would realy discredit consumerist."
Unless we read different posts then no, they did not suggest that. They asked us (the readers) how we felt. That's it.
Yay! Walmart making money by encouraging kids to get fat by putting crap food next to the toys! Walmart giving parents even more stress and headaches by giving them even more to tell their kids no about!
It's the American way! Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that one of the reasons the colonists were fighting King George was because he wouldn't let Walmart put empty-calorie crap in the toy aisle.
If Walmart had put, say, carrot sticks and broccoli florets in the toy aisle, without high-calorie dressing as a side, I'd think they were heroes. As it is, I think they are scum.
@Scott4: Whoa whoa whoa, who said anything about the government doing anything about this?
That aside, it explains why every time I have walked into the Wal-Mart near me, everything has been completely randomly shuffled. I gave up last time, after I was able to locate the mops but not the Pine-sol (or any other brand of floor cleaning detergent). None of the employees I asked knew since it had just been shuffled around.
I guess based on this story, I now know that the Pine-sol is across from wherever the "central office" thinks they can sucker people not looking for it into buying it. The people who actually wanted to buy cleaning supplies (or Pepsi and Doritos, in this case) are just SOL.
@ ptduke- you're EXACTLY right. i work for a major retailer with 6,700 stores nationwide (NOT walmart), and part of my job in the marketing department is to help find affinities between different categories of products. Along with that comes the co-op advertising dollars that vendors (such as pepsico, frito-lay, ect) offer a retailer for prime-time positions with in the store, as well as in circulars and such. This is a pretty extreame example of product placement, but I assure you they probably have a ton of research that says that fat kids like nerf balls (high profit margin item), and fat kids like doritos and pepsi (low profit margin), and when put them next to one another the fat kids parents are likely to buy both, rather than one or the other.. I can't blame wal-mart for placing product like this, but I can blame parents who don't want their kids to eat bullshit food, but buy it for them anyways. Lets be sure to keep in mind whom is actually paying for the stuff in the shopping cart @ the register.
this is obviously pepsi paying a premium for strategic product placement. that all. i have a bigger problem with reciept checking.
So, Wal-Mart is known for running lots of analytics about what product placement where results in higher sales. One (possibly apocryphal) example I heard was that when Wal-Mart put aisle leaders of beer near/in front of the aisles for diapers, beer sales increased significantly. They explained it as their research showing that men are often sent to wal-mart to buy diapers on the spur of the moment, and that putting beer in their path gives them something else to buy for themselves along with the diapers.
Another example I read was that in advance of predicted bad weather (possible tornados, hurricanes, etc.), sales of random items like Pop-Tarts go up, and hence Wal-Mart keeps tabs on the weather and adjusts appropriately.
They're kind of famous in the data warehousing world for doing really really deep purchase analytics.
Incidentally, I recently visited relatives in Norway.
They don't have commercials during kids' TV shows there. Those commies think kids ought to have the "right" to grow up without being constantly badgered to buy useless stuff that will break or make them fat.
I can't see how that can possibly compare with American corporations' Constitutional right to turn kids into obese little consuming robots with ADHD, diabetes, and so on. After all, unnecessary childhood illnesses are good not only for the medical profession, but for the pharmacies. I'm sure that's somewhere in the Constitution.
Faugh.
Stores are in the business to make money, and not do your parenting for you. Learn to say NO to your children, and this won't be a problem.
If this were a story about blatantly cheating employees or customers, violating health codes, or underhanded corporate policies, then yes I would have a problem with it. (Let me note that I hate Walmart and don't shop there anyways for all of their horrible practices.)
Setting out their store in the most profitable way is not wrong. It is a parents job to teach their children what healthy snacks are appropriate, not a corporations.
Now I much go wash off the shame, since I just defended Walmart.
Wal-mart is no longer a discount warehouse, it's a product and consumer manipulator, affecting the products we buy and their availability. Many of the rural stores have prices significantly higher than their urban stores. Many of the rural and suburban store isles are becoming more and more empty, which means that Wal-mart is hurting significantly. Instead of dropping prices, they're pulling product completely out and selling those products off to other discount stores, such as Big Lots. So one way for them to supplement the new lack of inventory, is to bring in very cheap products like cheese snacks and the like and put them in place of where they would normally be stocking seasonal toys, or other items. Probably not a great idea, that some VP trying to make a name for his, or her self came up with. Instead of trying to actually help their customers by dropping prices, those products that disappear leaves their customers with no options at all, except to go to the other stores where Wal-mart has unloaded their product. So you say what's wrong with Wal-mart putting cheese puffs in the toy isle? Obviously what is wrong is that the toys that normally would be there are missing and I believe soon, Wal-mart will be looking at store closures and more layoffs. You can't keep robbing from your urban and suburban stores to fill the bigger stores forever. Plus very many of Wal-mart's customers are tired of the games. Games like 'Roll Back' prices that never were, or pulling Starkist Tuna from the shelves entirely and replacing that brand with a generic version of Bumble Bee Tuna. At some point, they're going to have to rethink the madness...
I have a feeling this is part of Project Impact.
One goal of Project Impact is cleaner, less cluttered stores that will improve the shopping experience. Another is friendlier customer service. A third: home in on categories where the competition can be killed. "They've got Kmart ready to take a standing eight-count next year," says retail consultant Burt Flickinger III, managing director for Strategic Resources Group and a veteran Walmart watcher. "Same with Rite Aid. They've knocked out four of the top five toy retailers, and are now going after the last one standing, Toys "R" Us. Project Impact will be the catalyst to wipe out a second round of national and regional retailers."
Of course, if you never shop at Walmart, you will never have to see atrocities like this.
The worst part of it is that it will work. The stuff will sell like crazy there.
And I meant to finish with: Don't ask me how Pepsi and Doritos fit in, I don't know. But what kid wouldn't find Pepsi and Doritos in a toy store an improved shopping experience?
@Taliskan: Wal-Mart is ungodly calculated in abosolutely everything they do. No way could a manager get away with this. There are inspectors from their regional and home offices that visit each store a few times a month.
This is very deliberate and very wrong. But it's Wal-Mart, so sounds about right?
@Smashville_makes his own comments at home: Nope.. my local store has this too. It's definitely a directive from the 'Home Office'.
Just another reason to avoid the toy aisles at WalMart. I usually do unless one of the kids has allowance to blow. It's "easy enough" to just say no when my kids are pestering about junk food and dvds and whatever else, but it does get damn annoying. And while I do basically sit and sing the word "no" the whole time I'm in that store, I'd rather not be faced with "but you didn't get us CHIIPPPPSSSSSSS" all the way home when I've gone out of my way to avoid the junk good aisles.
I fail to understand any outrage over this. Walmart sells stuff, they put stuff near other stuff to try to get you to buy more. You can opt to not buy said stuff. Get over it.
It's not evil, it's not a moral issue, it's not even deceptive. It seems a bit odd, but it sure isn't something to get all bent out of shape over. You don't want pepsi & Doritos when picking up action figures for your kids... don't buy them. Case closed. Get over it, get on with your life.
...and don't forget to show your receipt at the door.
Wal-Mart can organize stuff however they want. The problem here will be caused by parents who are afraid or chose not to say NO to their kids, or whose kids have learned how to get whatever they want.
@Smashville_makes his own comments at home: Wal-Mart store managers aren't generally given the authority to make decisions on product placement. In the same way that they download and print price adjustments from HQ, they download store "plan-o-grams" (on a weekly basis, IIRC) which are basically printouts of how each and every aisle and four-foot section should be set up. In some cases, sections that are "purchased" by a specific vendor (Disney or Nintendo, for example) are periodically inspected by a rep from the vendor to ensure that the section is set up properly, and is not being used to display any other vendor's products.
I have absolutely no doubt that the idea for this juxtaposition of toys and snacks came directly from Bentonville.
I agree with you that Walmart does not have any allegiance but to the almighty dollar. With that established, I'd like to address the other things you mentioned:
Childhood Obesity: Parents are responsible. Walmart is not charge of their diet.
Environment: Since most of their supplies are imported from Communist China, you are correct on this. However, the Walmart that I visit does have a clean parking lot.
Concern for Employees: Their only "concern" for employees is what is mandated by law. The "well-being" of the employee should fall on the employee (See Childhood Obesity)
As far as customer cart stuffing, I think this adds to the "Hoarder" effect I've been watching on A&E.
The grocery store I work at did something like this while we were remodeling. They moved stuff from an aisle on one end of the store and moved it to another.
I walked through an aisle one day and wondered why there was Gatorade next to jars of tomato sauce.
I mean, someone should wait a couple weeks and see if anything changed, before jumping to conclusions.
Does this mean that it's okay for kids to play with their food now?
Clearly no one paid attention to the signage around these stands. My local Walmart has the same thing except its located on the board game aisle. The signage is all about "Family Fun Night" and the soda and chips are there as snack foods to eat while you play your favorite board game (all priced reasonably at $10 now..literally every game you can imagine is $10, it's kinda nice) or watch a movie, all conveniently located on the same aisle. Now clearly putting this in the MIDDLE of the regular toy aisle is a small misinterpretation of what they were supposed to do, but on the board game aisle it makes a lot of sense.
Making mountains out of molehills here people. Childhood obesity isn't due to eating a lot of junk foods its from not getting out and doing stuff outside. I live in a neighborhood with a ton of parks and when I was a kid they were always full. Now they stay empty.
Just to get this out of the way early in the thread: the topic involves Wal-Mart so I'm automatically not cool with this.