Walmart telling it's customers to ship fed ex - Brown Cafe

STLFeeder · 10-07-2009, 12:37 AM

We have a big account in hannibal MO that ships out all kinds of printed shirts and sweatshirts. They sell slot of their stuff to walmart. Driver that picks them up everyday went to school with the owner. Today he pulled him aside and told him they had a problem. Walmart had called him and told him to start shipping fedex or lose their business. He doesn't want to ship fedex and can't. Fedex wants everything ready by 4pm and won't give them trailers to load into and we pick them up at 7pm in two feeder trailers to give them plenty of room and time to get it all done.

I'm guessing they are a little upset at the unions for going after them and this is going to be their way if getting back at them.

BLACKBOX · 10-07-2009, 10:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by STLFeeder

Walmart had called him and told him to start shipping fedex or lose their business. He doesn't want to ship fedex and can't.

It doesn't matter what "he" wants. If Walmart says use FDX you have to comply or risk losing I'm sure one of his best accounts.

brett636 · 10-07-2009, 11:22 AM

I was wondering how long it would take for this fight to get ugly. Thats extremely low down and dirty, but what is a business owner to do? If he does not comply with Walmart he risks losing a big account, but if he switches to fedex he will be at both Walmart's and Fedex's mercy because he is stuck with both of them whether he wants them or not. Neither have an incentive to serve the customer like we do because they know the customer has no choice.

bluehdmc · 10-07-2009, 12:12 PM

Is this sort of thing legal for Walmart to do?
Maybe for 1 or 2 suppliers but if this is going on in other places it doesn't seem legal to me.
This is the sort of thing Standard Oil did to get a monopoly on the oil business.
What are Fedex rates going to be if they have a monopoly on shipping to Walmart?
Has Fred Smith been playing golf with the Waltons, and offering them plane rides on his fleet?
Maybe UPS should look into this and advise employees to shop elsewhere, make it a campaign like the letter writing thing.

STLFeeder · 10-07-2009, 12:22 PM

Ups shouldn't have to advise employees not to ship there. The teamsters and any other union has always been against the rank and file shopping there. I don't shop there personally but the wife does occasionally. I have been fine with it since walmart has been doing business with our company. Now that they are not only switching to fedex but also trying to get our customers to go that way, I told her no more trips to walmart unless she has a picket.

Dis-organized Labor · 10-07-2009, 12:48 PM

It really depends on who pays the shipping fee.
It is probably Walmart. They have the right to define who they pay for the shipping.
We own a small business and often stipulate who we wants goods shipped by, especially since it's our nickel.

BLACKBOX · 10-07-2009, 04:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bluehdmc

Maybe UPS should look into this and advise employees to shop elsewhere, make it a campaign like the letter writing thing.

Np, you want to keep an open dialog with Walmart in case you can win their business back. Look, decisions are made at the corporate level (as one poster noted), nothing we can do but comply.

In this business if you don't already know, accounts big and small come and go. It doesn't matter if the people on the dock hate FDX because I'm sure they say the same about us to FDX when we're not there.

edd_tv · 10-07-2009, 04:48 PM

and the people on the dock have no kind of say so in the matter either just like us.

i despise the thought of even going near the wal mart in my town.

rocket man · 10-07-2009, 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dis-organized Labor

It really depends on who pays the shipping fee.
It is probably Walmart. They have the right to define who they pay for the shipping.
We own a small business and often stipulate who we wants goods shipped by, especially since it's our nickel.

walmart dose not pay the shipping they dont even pay there vendors 90 to 180 days at a time . since it hasnt started yet we should RTS EVERY THING THEY SEND NOW. boy i hope it dont get lost and go to over goods that would be bad.

TheDick · 10-07-2009, 08:50 PM

FDX ground guy confirmed the Walmart rumor. But on the bright side we won KaiserPermanente back from FDX. At first we had partial volume now we have total volume pcs from them

klein · 10-07-2009, 11:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheDick

FDX ground guy confirmed the Walmart rumor. But on the bright side we won KaiserPermanente back from FDX. At first we had partial volume now we have total volume pcs from them

Trust me, if it was worth fighting over. UPS would have kept it.
I believe UPS lost money with Walmart, or just broke even.

It's not a big loss.
Now Fedex ground will pay the price !

MobileBA · 10-08-2009, 12:27 PM

Well, congratulations to Wal-Mart they are definitely using best. I know in the I-5 corridor in the Pacific NW FedEx always beats me to the finish line. Maybe they don't get paid enough to drive the speed limit.

brownmonster · 10-08-2009, 05:00 PM

I always went out of my way to make sure I got Walmart delivered as early as possible. Now I will have no problem delivering them at my convenience. I might be too busy to give them the ground with the air.

big_arrow_up · 10-08-2009, 05:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheDick

FDX ground guy confirmed the Walmart rumor. But on the bright side we won KaiserPermanente back from FDX. At first we had partial volume now we have total volume pcs from them

But does Kaiser fill up a TP-60 like Walmart does?

Slobberman · 10-08-2009, 07:51 PM

Funny that I am reading this now as I was hearing some managers talking about this today.Interesting....

skirhustler · 10-08-2009, 08:38 PM

Won't go to Walmart anymore, don't like their stuff. I like Target.

MrFedEx · 10-08-2009, 09:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by STLFeeder

We have a big account in hannibal MO that ships out all kinds of printed shirts and sweatshirts. They sell slot of their stuff to walmart. Driver that picks them up everyday went to school with the owner. Today he pulled him aside and told him they had a problem. Walmart had called him and told him to start shipping fedex or lose their business. He doesn't want to ship fedex and can't. Fedex wants everything ready by 4pm and won't give them trailers to load into and we pick them up at 7pm in two feeder trailers to give them plenty of room and time to get it all done.

I'm guessing they are a little upset at the unions for going after them and this is going to be their way if getting back at them.

What a "surprise". The most anti-union company in the USA supporting the second most anti-union company in the USA. Maybe the "W" in Frederick W. Smith stands for "Walton". I always thought it was the initial for "weasel".

satellitedriver · 10-08-2009, 10:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by klein

Trust me, if it was worth fighting over. UPS would have kept it.
I believe UPS lost money with Walmart, or just broke even.

It's not a big loss.
Now Fedex ground will pay the price !

So very true,
Volume is not a direct corollary to profit.

bbsam · 10-08-2009, 11:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by satellitedriver

So very true,
Volume is not a direct corollary to profit.

unless Fedex has a lower cost structure which would allow not a tentative break even point, but an actual profit. LL Bean, on the other hand....

satellitedriver · 10-09-2009, 09:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bbsam

unless Fedex has a lower cost structure which would allow not a tentative break even point, but an actual profit. LL Bean, on the other hand....

Reminds me of the old saw about buying hay for a dollar a bale and selling the bale's for 99cents.
One makes profit by, selling them in volume.
CODB, for both companies, are neck and neck.

bbsam · 10-10-2009, 12:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by satellitedriver

Reminds me of the old saw about buying hay for a dollar a bale and selling the bale's for 99cents.
One makes profit by, selling them in volume.
CODB, for both companies, are neck and neck.

Wall Street companies rise and fall on those one cent profits.

MrFedEx · 10-12-2009, 10:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bbsam

Wall Street companies rise and fall on those one cent profits.

Both companies have "bought" accounts for years by providing such heavy discounts that there was no profit generated at all....just impressive package counts. A major account once told me that they paid less than $4.00 to ship an Overnight Letter when the standard rate was $15.00. Their discounts on other FedEx products were similar, and I suspect that we may have even lost money in the hope of eventually taking away their long-time allegiance to UPS.

After a few months, the UPS 28-footer was right back on the dock as the customer played the 2 companies off against each other.

bbsam · 10-13-2009, 07:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrFedEx

Both companies have "bought" accounts for years by providing such heavy discounts that there was no profit generated at all....just impressive package counts. A major account once told me that they paid less than $4.00 to ship an Overnight Letter when the standard rate was $15.00. Their discounts on other FedEx products were similar, and I suspect that we may have even lost money in the hope of eventually taking away their long-time allegiance to UPS.

After a few months, the UPS 28-footer was right back on the dock as the customer played the 2 companies off against each other.

capitalism is beautiful

UpstateNYUPSer · 10-14-2009, 04:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bbsam

capitalism is beautiful

...unless the employees are unfairly compensated at the expense of the employer.

Shadow999 · 10-14-2009, 09:41 AM

We just lost an account that shipped 120 boxes plus of t-shirts daily. WalMart forced them to change shippers. This is a small business so they did not have a choice. WalMart is just too big. There are more to follow.