Retail Megadeal:Should Walmart Buy Jet.com?

What does Walmart have to do with aviation,one might have been excused for asking when this morning's news of its record-setting 3.3 billion dollar purchase of Jet.com came across.Yet on visiting the relatively obscure Jet.com's website,you immediately see what Walmart's reasoning was.Jet.com isn't named for aircraft,but for jets as a means of transporting its merchandise.*
Jet.com sells a full line of groceries,including fresh meat from Rastrelli Market and Kirkland brand dairy products from Costco.As you shop,Jet.com deducts your savings from your balance.Two day delivery is standard for their groceries.*
Rastrelli Market has eight retail locations and has expanded into food processing,warehousing and distribution,building a vertically integrated enterprise that is key to their quality assurance.With direct ownership or proprietary partnerships,Rastrelli Foods Group,of South Jersey,provides hand-trimming,processing and packing of an extensive line of gourmet meats,seafood,heat and serve meals,dessert and gift packages.For example,they own their own Black Angus cattle.The vertical integration ensures the quality and safety at all points of distribution,resulting in safer,higher quality products for the consumer.*
Besides groceries,Jet.com sells books,baby products,furniture,appliances,electronics,clothing and sporting goods.Looking over the pleasant,efficient website with discount to moderate pricing and astute,branded partnerships,one begins to sense Walmart made the right move toward improved competitiveness in this age of online merchants that we are in.*
Walmart Stores (WMT)

The Paring Knife:Wal-Mart Cuts Jobs

Wal-Mart,the largest U.S. and world employer,is cutting 10,000 more jobs from its Sam's Club division.Last week it cut 1200 jobs from Sam's Club customer recruitment ranks,saying it will turn to more targeted methods.Earlier in the month,it closed 10 Sam's Club stores,laying off 1500.The new job cuts are as a result of contracting with Shopper Events to handle sampling activities in the stores,which are considered crucial to warehouse store marketing.The total number of jobs cut from Sam's Club is 12,700.
Sam's Club has been trailing its competitors,Costco and BJ's Wholesale Club.Its sales declined last quarter,while parent Wal-Mart's sales increased.Typically,its customers have ended up buying well in excess of their actual needs.It's a habit many of them may be abandoning in the frugal atmosphere that prevails today.Samples staff will have a much harder sell under current conditions.
Some of the laid-off workers may be hired by Shopper Events.Others have been offered positions at Wal-Mart locations.This could limit the effect of the layoffs on local communities.Just how much the effect will be limited remains unclear,however.