Comparing Target and Wal Mart

Shopping at Walmart or Target is a matter of preference. For the most part the the customers that each direct their advertising to is very different. Walmart likes to claim they are “America’s Store”. Target tends to go after the young, hip customer usually more urban. Both want your money.

Walmart wants you to think that they have better (meaning lower) prices than Target or other retailers. This simply is not true. Yes, they have many products that are low in price but several years ago they were made to change their advertising from the “lowest price always” to “always low prices”. The difference is that they cannot guarantee that they will always be lower because private consumer advocacy groups did secret shopping tests and found that they were not always the lowest.

Target on the other hand wants to make you think their private label products are of higher quality. Sometimes this is true and sometimes it is not but they only let you perceive it and not actually say it. They do this by presenting you with nice clean stores with good lighting and displays. This is where Walmart is making improvements but they are not consistent. If the Walmart you visit is not exactly pristine you need to visit one that has been built in a more affluent suburb of a big city. You won’t think it’s the same company. One of Walmart’s biggest problems is that they spend more money in better neighborhoods and less on where their competition isn’t high and their customers have lower paychecks.

I personally like Target better because where I live it’s a SuperTarget (grocery) and the Walmart is not. And, I have so many other places to choose to shop. Where I moved from (a very small town) the Walmart was closer although very small but it was very clean and the employees where great and there was not much else to shop. Employees at the Walmart where I now live are the complete opposite of the small town.

Both companies are big corporations and use that to their advantage. For the most part, remember, they just want your money. They will try to appeal to whatever customer they want walking through the door whether they greet them or not.