Pain in the grass |
At winter time cutting grass should be one of the last things on my mind, but this excellent fast company article sucked me into the story of Snapper CEO Jim Weir and why he told Walmart to stop selling his Snapper mowers:
“We’re not obsessed with volume,” says Wier. “We’re obsessed with having differentiated, high-end, quality products.” Wier wants them sold–he thinks they must be sold–at a store where the staff is eager to explain the virtues of various models, where they understand the equipment, can teach customers how to use a mower, can service it when something goes wrong. Wier wants customers who want that kind of help–customers who are unlikely to be happy buying a lawn mower at Wal-Mart, and who might connect a bum experience doing so not with Wal-Mart but with Snapper.
I wasn’t aware that every Snapper mower is started and tested before leaving the factory by a human being who listens to the mower and then sucks out the oil. Not right? It goes back for testing. Still, amazingly they can produce a new Snapper mower on average every 109 seconds.
We hired a new sales producer for our offline business recently — I talked about the hiring process here — and yesterday was the first training day. One of the first things I tell new salespeople is not to focus too much on price. Early in the business I learned that people assign price to real and perceived value and if you don’t show them why a product or service is worth the price it is selling for, as in the case of Weir’s mowers, then all they have to compare is the price. That lesser quality mower for $99 looks more attractive than the one for $299 until you realize that the Snapper mower will last five, six maybe 10 times or more as long.
I firmly believe in the old cliche: live by price, die by price. While the dying part hasn’t become reality with Walmart, I believe this could be their achille’s heel someday. They do sell some quality products, but their seemingly undying focus to the cheapest price leaves me a bit cold. I feel out of place shopping at Walmart, although my wife loves the place and we have a good friend and client who works at Walmart and they’ve been nothing but good to her as an employer. I also like how Walmart promotes their employees from within. However, there is just something that doesn’t feel right to me about being in their stores. I can’t explain what that is exactly, but perhaps subconsciously I’m thinking about company’s like Snapper and reminded that a quality product rarely is also the cheapest and isn’t necessarily the most expensive either.
Perhaps the reason Walmart has done so well is because they try to woo some of the best product names into their distribution channel, only it seems they demand the absolute lowest price, even if the deal causes a loss to the manufacturer. Adding this to Weir’s own quotes above, I can see clearly why he wanted to take his Snapper mowers out of Walmart. It takes stones to say no to a company as big as Walmart.
I printed this article out to show our new producer later today. It’s challenging getting over thinking that everybody is interested in price. I don’t belive that’s true in theory or reality. I think most people want to get the best bang for their buck and if they understand that buying something for $100 may only be good for a couple seasons and not provide the same look to their grass as a competing mower three or four times as expensive which will last longer and have a better looking cut, they at least can make a more informed decision about which way they want to go. They also have to be able to afford the more expensive mower and trying to get somebody who legitimately doesn’t have the money to spend on something is like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Too often salespeople can oversell instead of fully understanding what the specific needs and concerns are and presenting with suitable options.
Maybe that’s what makes me uneasy about Walmart: that it’s a gigantic price tag with few, if any helpful salespeople to explain the differences between products. It’s grab a box with a big, cheap price tag, throw it in a cart and head for a checkout line. The stores often feel crowded, active and like being on a shipping dock. It’s not that the help isn’t pleasant, no, it is just that they always seemed rushed to do something, somewhere,
We tried to join the Walmart affiliate program for this blog and were turned down. We still do business with them from time to time, and the thinking was having them as an advertiser for certain products would have been a positive thing. If we’re talking about buying a new DVD, there isn’t much in the way of quality of workmanship to compare there, it’s the same DVD at Walmart, Fred Meyer, Target, Best Buy, Amazon, etc. So with some producs where the workmanship isn’t really relevant, having the cheapest price is most important. Walmart is a good fit for that type of shopping.
The Snapper brand is now etched positively in my mind for the next time we go lawn mower shopping. Kudos to Mr. Weir for having the courage and conviction to pull his Snapper mowers from Walmart — of which at the time Walmart was selling tens of millions of dollars of them — because quality still can and does matter over price to many, many people.
How do you rate the quality and workmanship of a product into the price you’re willing to pay? Does getting the absolute cheapest price matter to you or would you rather pay more and get something that lasts longer (giving the better value over time)? Do you think Weir was smart or stupid moving his Snapper mower line out of Walmart?
Did this post make you go hmm?
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You have a very good point TD. Our vacuum cleaner recently died. We only had it for 1.5 years. Off we went to… Walmart. Why? Several factors:
1) Availability: They are open 24hrs. It was 9:30 PM. Nevermind what I was doing vacuuming that late at night.
2) Price: The vacuums there range from $45-$100 something. So I dropped $65 for another vacuum cleaner.
I knew that I could get a cheap vacuum, and I don’t expect it to last more than 1.5 years or so. I consider them ‘disposable vacuums’. Ever feel and smell a carpet cleaned by a new vacuum? Ever smell what a 2-3 yr vacuum does to your carpet?
Of course we could spend $800-$1,200 on a nice brand new Kirby that will last 10-20 years. Thats not very good math though. Because it’s really a wash in the long run spending.
Iv’e had some friends who have worked at Walmart. According to their claims, they were treated terribly.
On those notes, I think it was smart of him to move his snapper mowers from them. Most people who shop Walmart aren’t going to drop that kind of cash for a quality product. At least I know I wouldn’t. If I was in the market for a mower or anything in that higher price range I would do more window shopping first. Walmart wouldn’t even be on the list. After checking online first I would probably visit Sears, Home Depot, Menards and the local hardware merchants.
Comment by ^Lestat — January 20, 2006 @ 10:56 am PST
I hate shopping at WalMart, and precisely for the reason that it represents the bottom of the barrel. I’d rather pay a little more for a quality product. My wife won’t shop there either. She says she can get far better products at a not much higher price at Ross or TJMaxx. If I was in the market for a mower, I’d go to Home Depot. Sure, the ambiance isn’t an improvement over WalMart, but the products are usually top notch at a decent price.
They’re building a WalMart just 11 miles from here in Poulsbo. I’m dreading the traffic and riff-raff that’ll draw.
I used a Snapper mower for years when I was a kid. The thing never broke down. Good on ‘em for pulling out of WalMart.
Comment by Sterling Camden — January 20, 2006 @ 12:17 pm PST
I’m a bit shocked and dismayed that neither you, TDavid, nor any of the above commenters have taken into account the massive damage that Wal-Mart has done to our society… in terms of mistreating workers, pushing out mom’n'pop stores, supporting Chinese sweatshops, and so on.
I don’t have a ton of money, frankly, but even I refuse to shop at Wal-Mart anymore. The guilt just isn’t worth it.
Comment by Adam — January 21, 2006 @ 8:30 am PST
Adam - I’m not a Wal-Mart fan, I’ve written that several times before and I believe this isn’t a pro-Walmart piece by any stretch. I think it’s great that Snapper pulled out of there and used that as an example to say to our new salesperson: price isn’t all that matters. Society is to blame for making Wal-Mart popular, not Wal-Mart. If people didn’t shop there except for the items where the quality of workmanship did not matter (as the above post highlights), Wal-Mart wouldn’t be so disruptive.
For example, CDs .. want to stick it to them? They sell some of those at a loss. Go into Wal-Mart and buy those CDs where you know that’s the story and nothing else. Buy items where Wal-Mart loses and guess what happens to them if enough people do that … or don’t shop there period?
And Wal-Mart hasn’t succeeded at everything they’ve tried to do. Remember the Wal-Mart music download service?
Comment by TDavid — January 21, 2006 @ 9:57 am PST
I buy things at Wal Mart, but I buy things elsewhere, too.
What to I buy at Wal Mart?
1) I buy food there. It’s a very good supermarket that’s only four miles away. It’s clean, uncluttered, and well stocked. The next closest supermarket is a very nice Albertsons that’s eleven miles away, and the next closest beyond that, another Albertsons, is twenty miles away. The products are the same at all three. I can’t see any advantage to driving more to get the same products at higher prices.
2) I buy generic products there, such as oil for my vehicles, a broom for my floors, bags for my vacuum, duct tape for my garage, and so on. Again, these are the same products I could buy elsewhere, but I would drive further and pay more.
What do I not buy at Wal Mart?
1) Obviously, things they don’t sell. (That’s a joke — get over it.) I’m a big customer of Lowe’s and I have a favorite hardware store, both over twenty miles away.
2) I buy products elsewhere when there is a noticeable advantage to doing so. Lawnmowers come to mind, and here’s why it’s a good example. I used a Honda tractor-style riding lawn mower, purchased new, from 1993 to 2001. It was a magnificent machine: two cylinders, water cooled, comfortable, quiet, …, I could go on and on. I sold it to my brother when I moved to a place that had no grass to cut. Then I moved here and the miserable so-and-so wouldn’t sell it back to me. It’s been through twelve seasons and still runs like it’s new. It works great and looks great. So, I bought a new Scag, spending over $6,000 on it. It will still be running fine, and will be worth some thousands of dollars, twenty or thirty years from now. My brother’s Honda still is, as is his Grasshopper. All three are high quality, serviceable tools, not throw-away consumer trash.
So, I’m picky about what I buy. I buy quality where it matters, and I go where I have to and pay what I have to when I do so. But, when I buy generic, I buy it where the price is the lowest and convenience the highest, which is Wal Mart.
Comment by DJ — January 22, 2006 @ 11:28 am PST
I too feel dis-enchanted with Wal-Mart, just walking in the store feels strange, like I’m not a part of the vibe(CheapShopping). I think a major cause for this is perhaps my age(41)where quality was worth more than what you paid for the product. Also, my father often spoke aloud in the household that “Only Quality Buy’s Customer Loyality.
Comment by A.P.Figueora — January 22, 2006 @ 2:04 pm PST