Wal Mart surprise

[flipe8]

I'm in New Brunswick, Canada and I sure hope the knives are going to be in the Canadian stores as well. Could this be confirmed for the Canadian market?

[CKE]

****...gotta check out my Canadian Wal-Mart tomorrow. I bet there isn't a dealer in Canada that could touch em :D

[bigcat]

I was talking to the sporting goods employee a couple months ago and he told me they would like to sell spydercos but that spyderco would not deal on the price. I go there every now and then and take a couple spyderco tp show them. They have done a way with their knives under glass and only have a picture of their knives. Not very impressive. I will have to check them out tomorrow.

Bigcat

[thombrogan]

What the??? Was beginning to believe Walmart prefered Chinese products...

Read Sam Walton's biography. He bought tons of stuff from China, but always looked to see if an American company or person wanted his business even moreso. That's likely part of the philosophy of the current Wal-Mart as well (especially confirmed since they wanted a native-made Native and gave the bird to the Sekis, TaiPeis, and Byrds). Heck, my Buck 110 from Wal-Mart is American made.

[STR]

Speaking of Buck 110s. They have them on special at Wally world for like 23 bucks and some change in a special holiday tin and a key ring that is pretty cool of the Buck emblem. Can't hardly argue with that deal.

[J Smith]

Sorry to say that it is not the philosophy of the current Wal-Mart.I know many people who have worked for them for years and they say that it was like working for a completely differant company after Sam Walton died.Working where I do I have been able to talk to many employees of Wal Mart and all have said it was the worst place they ever worked for.The guy that works with me now worked for them just a few years ago and says that from what he hears from people that still work there from the time he did are all looking for other jobs.Wal Mart wants all the dept store grocery business period and actively seek to close down all others.
Wal Mart is currently paying a lease on a building a couple miles up the road from them just to keep out another store.
I don't really want to see them close but something needs to knock Wal Mart down a notch or two.
Funny thing here local is how Wal Mart screwed themselves.Rumor is that Rockwood paid some hi ups at Walmart to locate in Rockwood,a good 6 miles south of exit 350 on I40.They had the chance to build at exit 347 right on the interstate.When the hi ups that were a little higher up than the ones that picked Rockwood came to look at the site they wanted to see the exit 347 site too,when they did it was oh no we arn't building in Rockwood we are building here but the deal had been signed with Rockwood.The exit 347 site sits right in the middle of 3 cities and is much easier for many more people to get too.Now for the funny part,Lowes grabbed that site and a new Kroger built beside them.A couple nice restarants are going to biuld there and I heard a super Target is going to locate across the highway from the Lowes.When it does our Walmarts sales will really drop.I can be in west Knoxville in about the same amount of time that it takes me to get to the Rockwood Wal Mart and people on the east side of my town can be in Oakridge faster the Rockwood.
Last thing I heard was as soon as the deal was up with Rockwood the Wal Mart big boys are going to move the store to the 347 exit.

[J Smith]

Just got back from my Wal Mart and they did not have the Native but they said they haven't gotten thier new knife display in yet.They did have the Buck 110 for 23.47,I would have gotton it for my sons Xmas knife but I just won an auction on ebay this morning for a Zebra bone Case Peanut for him.I did put the wife something in lay away and bought my daughter a metalic pink Timex ironman for Xmas.

[John F Jensen]

A distributor's perspective:

I grew up in the knife business with Spyderco for many reasons. Mainly because they have an excellent product and staff and Sal abhored deep discounters (wouldn't sell to Gun Show and Internet dealers) and enthusiastically protected their price structure and their dealers.

If WalMart's retail price on tne C41PBK is 39.48 that is indeed a deep discount. I don't envision any dealer carrying a C41PBK when WalMart sells it for $8.00 less than Spyderco's dealer cost.

This is a giant disappointing change. Or, have I missed something?

[ghostrider]

A distributor's perspective:

I grew up in the knife business with Spyderco for many reasons. Mainly because they have an excellent product and staff and Sal abhored deep discounters (wouldn't sell to Gun Show and Internet dealers) and enthusiastically protected their price structure and their dealers.

If WalMart's retail price on tne C41PBK is 39.48 that is indeed a deep discount. I don't envision any dealer carrying a C41PBK when WalMart sells it for $8.00 less than Spyderco's dealer cost...

I was thinking something along those lines. I thought about my local dealer and can't envision him competing with that kind of price. I paid the same amount for my Native some time ago when a local sporting goods retailer closed them out. When I told my local knife dealer, his eyes bugged out. I can't imagine him carrying the Native any longer since there is probably no way he could even match Walmarts price. I can easily see the Native becomming an item that will only be found at Walmart for this reason.

[J Smith]

Can't belive it,I bought 2 things from walmart in as many days.I got the watch for my daughter yesterday and I was going to get one for my son next week when we finnish thier Xmas shopping but we were in a Walmart today and they had a mid sized G-Shock priced for 47.96.The sale tag that was stuck on the side of it said reg price 24.96,sale price 19.96. :eek:
I asked the lady if that price was right and she looked at it and said "no,we must have put the sticker on the wrong watch but you can have it for that price"
John,I understand.At least its just one model and some will not buy from Walmart anyway.I know I will never buy any electronics or lawn care equipment from them again after the time I bought a weedeater,took it home and found out that its head gasget was missing,they wanted to send in off for repair with a 4 to 6 week wait to get it back.The lawn mowning season is only twice that.I had to argue with two managers before I got a refund.

[J Smith]

Something crossed my mind last night.
Maybe the Native is going to get the same type upgrade the Delica and Endura are getting.If so this Wal Mart deal would be a great way for Spyderco to get their name in a national account and get rid of any excess patrs before the upgrade.
If it is upgraded Spyderco could still make the old version for Wal Mart and the new upgraded version for the regular dealers.

[ghostrider]

Something crossed my mind last night.
Maybe the Native is going to get the same type upgrade the Delica and Endura are getting.If so this Wal Mart deal would be a great way for Spyderco to get their name in a national account and get rid of any excess patrs before the upgrade.
If it is upgraded Spyderco could still make the old version for Wal Mart and the new upgraded version for the regular dealers.

That brings to mind. Wasn't there some talk about a bolstered version?

[J Smith]

I remember some talk about some type of Native upgrade,I may be wrong but I was thinking it was the same type thing as the Delica-Endura upgrade.
Be cool if it was with 125V steel.

[skcusloa]

I've always been able to take anything I want back to wal mart, even if I had no good reason. They just don't argue with you. If you don't have the reciept they give you store credit. You can go buy stuff from them, take it home, run it over, bring it back and they'll be happy to exchange it. Maybe it's just the wal mart here.

[ghostrider]

I remember some talk about some type of Native upgrade,I may be wrong but I was thinking it was the same type thing as the Delica-Endura upgrade.
Be cool if it was with 125V steel.

There was mention of that also. IIRC I think there is the possibility of a sprint run?

[J Smith]

The Wal Marts here used to be like that but about 5 years ago they got real picky.You can only take 4 items a year back with out a reciept,they ask for your DL# so they can track it.
Any electronics or things with gas motors must be sent to the manufacturer for repair even if they do not work straight out of the box. :mad:

[STR]

I see nothing wrong with moving stuff through Wal-Mart. Just about everybody shops there. It only makes sense to have a presence there if possible from a marketing standpoint.

The jury is still out on how this will proceed and it would be prudent to give the benefit of the doubt to Spyderco and Sal that they have a plan and know what they are doing. The Native was afterall made originally for Wal-Mart to sell. Dealers have plenty of other choices to pick from to sell out of the Spyderco line up if the Native can't be sold well due to a price difference.

[Rainy County]

I was at Wal Mart a few weeks and they didn't have any spyderco knives but I'll have to check as soon as I can. The Wal Marts have mostly different knives, the one nearest me doesn't have many knives at all.

[zenheretic]

Read Sam Walton's biography. He bought tons of stuff from China, but always looked to see if an American company or person wanted his business even moreso. That's likely part of the philosophy of the current Wal-Mart as well (especially confirmed since they wanted a native-made Native and gave the bird to the Sekis, TaiPeis, and Byrds). Heck, my Buck 110 from Wal-Mart is American made.

Hello thombrogan;

I'm not sure why you would pick my smart alec comment out of the pack to comment upon, but the fact that you did tends to point to you having a connection to them...either employment, stocks, or just like to shop there. I can respect that. Really nothing of what you have said changes my joke, but like I once said to the honorable Hannibal, if I have to explain my joke it must not be funny.
Yes I'm sure Walmart carries several American made products, but there marketing scheme is based solely on price. I have never seen the little Yellow Smiley Walmart ball gliding through the aisles rolling back Chinese products for American products. The Yellow smiling ball only rolls back prices. In the current economy, China enjoys a lower wage vs. other industrialized nations. As wage is the #1 cost in 99% of all manufacturing (in my opinion) China is able to offer cheaper products for nearly anything not supremely high tech. Having shopped in Walmart on many occasions I'm fairly confident that at least half their products are Chinese. If you are still awake at this point, I hope you can appreciate a tiny bit better about what I was saying.
I hope the new Spyderco venture turns out well for Spyderco, Walmart and Spyderco's other distributors, but that doesn't mean I can't make a joke even if no one gets it.

[STR]

It could be debated till everyone is blue in the face as to who is to blame for Chinese 'cheaper' products invading the US market. Is it really the retailers faults or is it simply that Americans buy the stuff so they provide it? If we didn't buy it maybe they would move to something else. Much the same with all the crap on TV being produced. If the public didn't buy the stuff up and stand in line to see it maybe the producers would produce something else besides violence.

I think Wal-Mart just gives the buying public what they want not really caring where it came from so long as the buyers get it for a good price. If they could get it here and sell it for less I'm sure they would. We all need to take a long look in the mirror and place the blame where it belongs and stop passing the buck or looking for scapegoats to lay blame on. Myself included.