The End of Wal-mart?

Well, probably not the end. It's not like Wal-mart is actually losing money, but it looks like, after 20 years of horrifying virus-like expansion (seriously! check out the video in this article) the country has finally reached the saturation point. I can only hope that the niche super-stores (bizarre to even say something like that) will be able to continue to carve away at their market-share until the company is destroyed in a ball of apocalyptic fire and discount SpeedStick.

clipped from online.wsj.com American shoppers are increasingly looking for qualities that Wal-Mart has trouble providing. "For the first time in a long time, quality has a chance to gain on price," says Lee Peterson, a vice president at Dublin, Ohio-based brand consulting firm WD Partners Inc. But the Internet is transforming the retail definition of scale. The once-stunning compilation of 142,000 items found in a Wal-Mart supercenter doesn't seem so vast alongside the millions of products available on the Internet. At the same time, the cost of creating and sustaining a national brand is rising because of media fragmentation. Niche brands, created by Internet word of mouth, are winning shelf space and sapping profits required to fund big brands' advertising. Manufacturers such as Apple Inc. and Phillips-Van Heusen Corp., lacking the retail distribution or presentation they crave, are opening their own stores. One result is that retail giants hold less sway over their customers -- and over their suppliers.