Wal-Mart (Bentonville, Ark.), the biggest retailer in the world, has announced it will stop sharing information about its sales figures in the dozens of product categories its stores carry.
While the sales data bases kept by firms like Information Resources and ACNielsen are considered important barometers of retail performance, and are used by consumer goods manufacturers to plot marketing plans, the publicity-shy Wal-Mart also evidently feels it is information made too available to its competition.
ÒIt made no sense for us to continue,Ó said a Wal-Mart spokesman. ÒWe can learn as much as we were learning from this information through other sources, without having to disclose our own sales. We decided that we didnÔt get as much out of [the data-sharing] as our competitors did.Ó
However, many feel that ending the practice might be good for Wal-Mart but will be damaging to retailers and their product suppliers in general. ÒGetting mass-merchandise numbers without Wal-Mart is a little like Christmas without Santa Claus,Ó said John McMillin, a food analyst for Prudential Securities. ÒThereÕs been a lot of growth in that channel, and the growth has been fueled by Wal-Mart.Ó
Though an all-purpose mass-merchandiser, Wal-Mart has over the years become the countryÕs Number One seller in such product categories as jewelry, sporting goods, toys and food and beverages.