The consumers awareness regarding Walmart - Essay Example

? WALMART Introduction Walmart is one of the leading retail stores, which was founded in the year 1962. It delivers a pleasurable and suitable experience of shopping to its broad range of customers worldwide. Currently, there are 629 stores of Walmart operating its business functions throughout the United States (Walmart Corporate, 2012). It has been identified that Walmart possesses a significant range that exceeds 10,130 units of retail stores and carrying out its business operations in 27 countries throughout the world. In the financial year of 2012, the present sales of Walmart amount to US$ 443 billion and it engages a significant number of associates globally (Walmart Corporate, 2012). In the article “Company Spotlight: Walmart Stores, Inc.”, it has been observed that Walmart generally executes through few of the business sections that include “Walmart US”, “Sam’s Club” and “Walmart International” throughout the world (Company Spotlight, 2012). The main purpose or vision of Walmart lies in its policy of ‘saving money of the people’ and to help the people to live well in this world. Moreover, the organization also has delivered various financial prospects especially upon its related industry i.e. retail industry and has altered the nature of the business that the organization executes worldwide (Walmart Corporate, 2012). In addition, Walmart enhanced the overall impact upon the retail industry and ultimately increased the potentials of the customers in spite of operating in different countries where the customers shop (Walmart Corporate, 2012). It has been observed that in the year 2011, Walmart attained various awards such as “Corporate Environmental Excellence for Walmart Canada” and “Top Organizations for Multicultural Business Opportunities” among others for various efforts that were performed by Walmart while executing its business operations (Walmart Corporate, 2012). Most people are fully aware regarding the business operations and functions of Walmart and its deliverance of broad variety of quality products. In the study, there has been a conduct of various research and online questionnaires regarding the frequency of visit of wide range of customers to Walmart. Moreover, the research also has assisted to explore whether people are familiar with the corporate practices of Walmart. Methods A survey method has been conducted with the public or the customers as respondents in order to acquire a general idea regarding their valuable opinions upon Walmart. An online questionnaire has been designed in order to accomplish the research. The purpose of this survey is to trace the number of people who possess the experience of shopping with Walmart, reasons behind the selection of Walmart as their shopping destination compared to others and the description of the products that people generally purchase from Walmart. Moreover, the purpose of this survey has been also to trace how often people do shopping at Walmart along with acquiring a general idea regarding the knowledge of the people about the corporate practices of Walmart. In addition, the questionnaire in the survey is also based upon whether anyone has done any shopping or has not possessed the shopping experience with Walmart. If any person replied that they do not possess or have not done any shopping at Walmart then they had to respond the following question i.e. ‘For what reasons do you chose not to shop at Walmart?’ In the questionnaire, the questions also include the judgment of the people, whether Walmart is a good place to work or not. Apart from the above questions that have been mentioned in the questionnaire, the initial or the primary questions include the gender i.e. whether the customer or the respondent is female or male, the age of the respondent and the status of the respondent or the customers i.e. whether the respondent is an employee, student or others. The questionnaire that has been designed in order to conduct the research study was fundamentally provided to a sum total of 50 people who were recognized as the customers or the respondents of the study. Thus, by providing the questionnaires to 50 respondents, data were collected in the above discussed issues or questions and are further analyzed. Results The questionnaire was very much necessary in order to recognize along with tracing out the main causes regarding the huge craze for Walmart as a shopping destination for a broad number of the people or the customers or the respondents. Once the data had been collected, the results are segregated initially according to their gender i.e. males or females. The results depict that 21 males and 29 females were surveyed adding up to sum total of 50 people. From the survey, it has been observed that the majority of respondents were females as compared with the males who have responded in the questionnaire. Along with the gender, relating with the age group, it has been recognized that there were 23 people surveyed whose age ranged from 18-25 years old, 8 people within the age range from 26-33 years old, 7 people within the ager range of 34-45 and finally 12 people within the age range of 46 and above. Thus, it is evident from the survey that the majority of the people who had been surveyed were in the age group range 18-25. The following graph depicts a better idea of the percentage of females and males who were interviewed. Figure 1: Percentage of Females and Males Surveyed In relation with one of the questions that was presented in the questionnaire regarding the number of people or respondents who purchased various products from Walmart, it has been identified that 47 of the respondents wanted to purchase various products from Walmart and 3 respondents did not want to purchase any products from Walmart. From the survey, it has been revealed that the majority of the respondents want to purchase various products from Walmart and have been quite familiar with the organization. The following graph depicts a better idea of the number of respondents that want to purchase various products from Walmart along with the number of respondents who do not want to purchase any products from Walmart. Figure 2: Percentage of Number of Respondents Regarding Purchase of Products from Walmart It has also been asked to the respondents that whether they possess any idea or knowledge regarding the corporate practices of Walmart or not. It has been recognized from the survey that out of 47 respondents, 30 respondents did not think that they possess any knowledge about the corporate practices of Walmart, 8 respondents thought that they were quite knowledgeable about the corporate practices of Walmart and 9 respondents were not sure about the corporate practices of Walmart. Here in this particular question of the questionnaire, the number of respondents were 47 instead of 50 because 47 respondents had purchased various products from Walmart and the rest i.e. 3 respondents did not. From the survey, it has been observed that the majority of the respondents think that they are not knowledgeable about the corporate practices of Walmart. The following graph depicts a better idea of the quantity of respondents regarding their thinking about the corporate practices of Walmart. Figure 3: Percentage Value of Awareness about the Corporate Practices of Walmart. Discussion While conducting the survey based upon the designed questionnaire on Walmart, which is one of the leading retail stores, it has been identified that the majority of the people are well aware and quite familiar with the big brand name and majority of people who responded to the questionnaire have purchased various products from Walmart. Initially, the first question which was in the questionnaire was based upon the gender of the respondents i.e. either female or male. After considering the aspect of gender, the second question was based upon the age range due to the fact that the older people who belong to the age above 70 years may not visit Walmart to purchase any products from Walmart due to their greater age. From the survey, it has been identified that 23 respondents belonged to the age group of 18-25, 8 respondents belonged to the age group of 26-33, 7 respondents within the age group of 34-47 and finally 12 respondents within the age group of above 46. The majority of the people belonged to the age group of 18-25 due to the fact that this particular age group likes to shop with Walmart along with possessing high level of shopping experience with Walmart. It has also been observed in the survey, that a large majority of people i.e. out of 50 respondents, 47 respondents want to shop or want to purchase at Walmart and the remaining 6% respondents did not want to purchase anything from Walmart. The reason for the large majority of people desiring to purchase any product from Walmart lie in the fact that may be the organization greatly satisfies their basic requirements by offering cheaper and quality products. The other reason can be the fact that the organization already has made a valuable reputation for shopping experience towards the respondents. In this connection, the reasons for the respondents who do not want to purchase or shop anything from Walmart may lie in the fact that the respondents are not familiar with Walmart or do not like to shop anything from any retail outlet. A certain question was made to the respondents who want to shop or purchase from Walmart. The question is that ‘for what reasons do the respondents want to shop at Walmart’. There were several choices identified such as for the location, quality of products, price, goods services and reputation. It has been observed that a majority of the respondents prioritized the factor of price for which the respondents want to shop and purchase products from Walmart. After acquiring a broad idea from the respondents regarding the desire of shopping and purchasing products from Walmart, the survey was also based on the various products that the respondents want to purchase from Walmart. The options for the diverse products of Walmart include electronics, baby needs, clothing/shoes, health/beauty items, toys, sporting goods and articles of everyday use among others. After acquiring a broad idea regarding the various reasons along with the assorted products that the respondents want to purchase products from Walmart, the questionnaire was also designed in order to evaluate how often the respondents shop at Walmart. Out of 47 respondents, 4 respondents stated that they daily shop at Walmart, 33 respondents stated that they weekly shop at Walmart and 10 respondents stated that they shop at Walmart on a monthly basis. From this survey, it has been apparent that a large majority of people shop weekly at Walmart as compared with others such as daily, monthly and yearly. The most probable reasons for making weekly shopping at Walmart include that the respondents purchase bulk amount of products or Walmart might present huge discounts upon weekly purchasing products to the respondents. In relation with the questionnaire, a particular question has been provided to the respondents i.e. whether the respondents think that they are knowledgeable about the corporate practices of Walmart or not. According to the survey, it has been identified that 30 respondents do not think that they were knowledgeable about Walmart corporate practices, 9 respondents were not sure regarding their knowledge about the corporate practices of Walmart and 8 respondents really think that they are quite knowledgeable about the corporate practices of Walmart. A large majority of the respondents stated that they do not think that they are knowledgeable about the corporate practices of Walmart due to certain reasons or facts. The facts or the reasons include may be the respondents do not possess any shopping experiences with Walmart or the respondents do not want to shop with Walmart due to certain reasons such as price, quality and location among others. Thus, it can be stated that the survey highlighted about the consumers awareness regarding one of the leading retailing stores i.e. of Walmart along with the various reasons or causes in order to have a shopping experience or purchase any product especially from Walmart. References Company Spotlight. (2012). Company description. Retrieved from http://www.companyspotlight.com/14381/WMT/Wal-Mart-Stores-Inc Walmart Corporate. (2012). Walmart. Retrieved from http://walmartstores.com/AboutUs/7606.aspx Walmart Corporate. (2012). About us. Retrieved from http://walmartstores.com/AboutUs/ Walmart Corporate. (2012). Our purpose. Retrieved from http://walmartstores.com/AboutUs/9538.aspx Walmart Corporate. (2012). Awards & recognition. Retrieved from http://walmartstores.com/AboutUs/336.aspx Read More