Meet WinCo, a retail chain with just under a hundred stores in eight states. They’re growing fast and somehow manage to undercut Walmart’s “always low prices.”
Compared to Walmart’s more than 4,000 stores in the U.S. alone, perhaps it’s a little premature to call them “Walmart’s worst nightmare.” But hopefully we can all agree it wouldn’t be such a bad thing for Walmart to lose more business to a company like this.
Here are four ways WinCo is crushing Walmart:
1. Customer Satisfaction
WinCo: Smart business model makes for low prices and good customer experience.
Walmart: Tops the list of retailers with THE WORST customer satisfaction ratings.
Walmart keeps prices low, in part, by systematically understaffing their stores. So if you’ve ever wondered what’s up with those empty shelves in your local Wally World, there’s your answer.
2. Wages
WinCo: Employee pay starting around $11 per hour.
Walmart: Employee pay starting around $8 per hour.
Walmart’s absurdly low wages cost taxpayers billions of dollars every year in public assistance for their workers (food stamps, Medicaid, housing subsidies, etc.).
Meanwhile, the company also profits from taxpayers by using a loophole that allows their executives to take home millions of dollars on top of their salaries. Walmart is exploiting its workers so badly that even investors think they deserve a raise.
3. Benefits
WinCo: Health benefits and pensions for employees working 24+ hours per week.
Walmart: Cutting health insurance for employees working less than 30 hours per week.
Despite billions in profits and redonkulous executive pay packages, Walmart is kicking thousands of part-time workers off their health plan. Those who remain eligible for Walmart’s health coverage are paying a lot more out of pocket. Suffice it to say their workers are not happy.
4. Ownership
WinCo: Employee-owned through stock ownership program.
Walmart: More than half-owned by one of the world’s richest families.
WinCo’s employee stock ownership program makes the interests of the company and its employees one and the same. Their people work harder and stick around for longer because the success of the company means success (and retirement) for them.
