Here's something I haven't figured out.

Every time my local Walmart starts carrying something that sells well they decide to discontinue it. They will even get rid of regional staples like Cheerwine to put in crap that ends up stale on the shelf (like Diet Rite).

The biggest victim of this is definitely Pepsi. What does Walmart have against Pepsi? Is it because Pepsi's Black? (to those who know the reference, you obviously know this wasn't intended as a racist comment)

Someone explain.

heh interesting post but no your assertions are false.. Pepsi and Walmart are actually very big partners with one another and if it weren't for Walmart pulling big for Pepsi then we wouldn't be doing near as well as we are now.

Before you go blaming Wal-Mart, maybe you should be looking at the local bottler/distributor. They may choose to carry or not carry certain brands or flavors in each account.

And lordmadone is right, Pepsi and Walmart are pretty tight. Pepsi gets the gameday display, and they have run some good ads this year - $4 cubes and $2 12 packs.

Also, some of the decisions about what to carry may come down to the distributor's account manager. Space at Wal-Mart is usually pretty limited. You usually can't carry everything.

But for real, Wal-Mart has become quite Pepsi friendy in the last year or two.

If WalMart runs their grocery department like most others, they have no control over what is stocked. From what I understand the distributors lease the space in grocers and stores and decide themselves what to stock. That's why you always see Pepsi and Coke employees doing their own stocking of the drinks and not the employees of the grocery stores.

In the case of most soft drinks, it's the local distributor, not Walmart, that makes the decision on what drinks to put on their alloted shelf space. Cott, who makes Walmart's store brands, is an exception. They will provide whatever they are told to supply.

I hate to say it, but you're wrong.

I worked for Walmart at one miserable point in my life. I am friends with the Pepsi and Sundrop distributors. Some miserable creten in a cubicle for Walmart corp. actually decides what food items can go in a particular store. If they feel an item isn't living up to its potential, they kill it and have the vendor fill the space with something else.

That is also why you can never find new Pepsi products at Walmart first. You typically have to go elsewhere if you're wanting to try their new products. They're typically only brought into Walmart about halfway through a promotion (the Throwbacks being the only example I've seen to date).

Well, I hate to say it, but your Wal-Mart sucks, then. I've never heard of Wal-Mart "killing" a vendor item. And I've never had a Wal-Mart employee come to me and tell me to stop carrying something because it doesn't sell according to their standards.

Well as a vendor working with walmart... you're all right, and you're all wrong... each instance for an item disco'd or added will depend on varous circumstances... the planogram'd shelf space changes several times throughout the year, not neccesarrily in footage for the vendors but each four foot block will change multiple times a year...

Now sometimes this is to accomodate seasonal changes, sometimes to accomodate national changes... but generally walmart decides what brands will go in each four foot block based upon sales history, promotional/vendor payments, and general desires of the buyers who control that particular category...

So you may see some items in a store that has say 8 feet dedicated to tea's, but you won't see it in a store that only has 4 feet dedicated to tea's... and some stores that have 12 feet of tea space will have a certain set, and then local "flex space" where they can work in regional items or expand on other items as they see fit...

So its really a combination of everyones speculation as to what goes in a planogram'd space... or what comes out of it... but I can assure you almost every inch of walmart is planned at the corporate office and very little comes down to the local vendor or department manager... I deal with it every day when asking for display space or where can we put this item that sells well but isn't planned for...

P.S. so to use your cherrwine example, locally they might not sell enough to beat a national planogram for diet rite which has much stronger numbers nationally... and the store might not have the flex space to put cheerwine to grow or keep the sales to compete against a national product.

Wal-Mart kind of sucks anyway you know. Forget about Pepsi. Look at the place in general. Around here if you have a full mouth full of teeth you can't work there.