HotSpring Spas being sold at Wal-Mart!

[East_TX_Spa]

Terminator

[SpaNE]

What model is that?  

Thats gotta suck if you are a dealer.

[Spiderman]

Looks like a Sovereign, but is Walmart actually selling the tub or is a dealer doing a promo inside for dad's day?

[Jacuzzi Jim]

 With the bathrooms that close hopefully no on mistakes it for a toilet.   8-)  

[Pathfinder]

Way to make a nice looking tub look like a $2 piece of junk  with all of those "decorations" around the tub.

[East_TX_Spa]

Sorry ya'll...I had to go help our guys deliver a spa to the Chia Spa house in the rain:




We fished a little bit and drank some of the homeowners beer (they are out of town) while the spa was filling up.

The spa at Wal-Mart is indeed a HotSpring Sovereign.  The manager of the store is a customer of mine and asked if he could borrow a spa for about 6 weeks to promote his pool and spa chemicals.  I said "sure"!  So, they pimped it out (a little too much for my tastes) and set up a TV with our promo DVD playing on a loop front and center in their store.  He also puts out my brochures each day and is going to allow us to sit up there and sell spas.

Wal-Mart is making an effort to promote local businesses that offer products they don't, so I thought some of you dealers might want to pursue something along these lines with them.

We'll probably do it in the other 2 local stores when we get some more spas in that aren't already sold.  It's generated a LOT of interest thus far.

Terminator

[shortspark]

Hey Term, that is pretty cool and excellent free advertisement for Hot Springs.  Is it in the WalMart next to Sams out there?

[East_TX_Spa]

No sir, it's at the one on Gilmer Road.

I thought it was a pretty good deal, too.  Wal-Mart has a few shoppers, from time to time.

Term

[Gomboman]

Very cool Term. Good idea....

[Bonibelle]

Especially since you can now also pick up a Dell computer in Walmart to go with your new hot tub!

[drewstar]

Whew.   For a second I thought HS was in bed with these rapers....


 Walmart  puts the screws to suppliers.  They get the supplier to make full commitements to walmart and when the suplier is completey dependent on them, they start making price demands.  Companies are forced to produce cheaper and cheaper products just to meet Walmarts price points...Levi Strauss, and of course the imfamous.
Vlassic pickle.

 This should be required reading for every buinsess student and every shopper:

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.html

[Spatech_tuo]

I saw a 60 minutes piece about 10-15 yrs ago about what the Wal-Mart machine does to small town businesses, US manufacturers and some of the business practices they've been sued over (like selling pharmaceuticals for less than cost to kill the local drugstore and then raising prices back to their norm after the competition closes, against the law BTW and they lost but they'd already won the battle by then).

I NEVER shop at Wal-Mart. My wife unfortunately does somewhat when by herself but she knows I refer to them as the "Evil Empire" and fortunately she does little there and knows I have no interest in going with her. Even though I'm a bargain buyer I'll gladly buy at Target even if it's a little more. There was an article a while back that there are cities in California that voted to keep Wal-Mart Supercenters out and Wal-Mart is fighting it without success so far. I'll have to look for it.

[webboy]

I saw a 60 minutes piece about 10-15 yrs ago about what the Wal-Mart machine does to small town businesses, US manufacturers and some of the business practices they've been sued over (like selling pharmaceuticals for less than cost to kill the local drugstore and then raising prices back to their norm after the competition closes, against the law BTW and they lost but they'd already won the battle by then).

I NEVER shop at Wal-Mart. My wife unfortunately does somewhat when by herself but she knows I refer to them as the "Evil Empire" and fortunately she does little there and knows I have no interest in going with her. Even though I'm a bargain buyer I'll gladly buy at Target even if it's a little more. There was an article a while back that there are cities in California that voted to keep Wal-Mart Supercenters out and Wal-Mart is fighting it without success so far. I'll have to look for it.

I second your motion! Evil Empire!

[Mendocino101]

Whew.   For a second I thought HS was in bed with these rapers....


 Walmart  puts the screws to suppliers.  They get the supplier to make full commitements to walmart and when the suplier is completey dependent on them, they start making price demands.  Companies are forced to produce cheaper and cheaper products just to meet Walmarts price points...Levi Strauss, and of course the imfamous.
Vlassic pickle.

 This should be required reading for every buinsess student and every shopper:

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.html

Drew,

Thats is a great point that sometimes seems to get lost on many, by and large volume will help to lower the price but for many of the big box super stores it does not stop there, many things are made special for them but in order to reach price points the product simply has to be tweaked and whittled to make the dollars work.

[wmccall]

Walmart  puts the screws to suppliers.  They get the supplier to make full commitements to walmart and when the suplier is completey dependent on them, they start making price demands.[/url]

Your right, but they aren't the only ones. Lowes did that to a company I worked for, cost 75 good manufacturing jobs here locally all so Lowes could make an extra $1 profit on an item we sold for $4.50 and they resell for $19.99