Wal-Mart Butterfly Effect

BACKGROUND
I've had this idea for a long time that could slowly lead to the downfall of the biggest, coldest retail organization in the United States (and now the world, I believe). Yes, Wal-Mart. Anti-union? Pro-Republican? Yes, Wal-Mart.

When I studied logistics, I learned that Wal-Mart has one of the most advanced logistics systems in the world--more advanced than the United States military's. It's complicated, and is actually one of their strategic advantages compared to the competition. It's so complex, I'd never understand it even if it wasn't an industrial secret.

However, let's go down to the store level. Shelves upon shelves of inventory. As the inventory runs low, product is automatically ordered and routed before it actually runs out. Also, consumer buying trends affect the amount and kind of item ordered. Obviously, winter coats are cyclical; they're not going to continue ordering winter coats at the same level as Spring comes along.

This is a two part plan: purchase and return.

The Plan: Purchase
All right, so their purchasing is based on buying trends. As demand for certain products increase, they may stock other complementary products (ie. demand for peanut butter increases, they may stock more bread).

So then I thought, "What if people made a concerted, organized effort to fuck with Wal-Mart?" Why not? These are the things I think about.

So what if we picked a date off the calendar and had as many people as we could go out to Wal-Mart and buy out all of one or two or three items off the shelf? Let's say everyone on a random date, say September 16, goes and purchases ALL of the Cool-Mint Listerine. I mean, not just one person. Many many people. All the inventory out front disappears, and they run to the back and get more. All of THAT is purchased, and people keep asking all day for Cool-Mint Listerine. There's huge demand for this Cool-Mint Listerine, and Wal-Mart can't figure out why. Why not the regular Listerine? Why not the store brand? Fuck, from Wal-Mart's Point of View, this is confusing, right? And if all the Listerine disappears, then there's another item that everyone concentrates their effort on. Let's say, when these Organized Consumers see the Cool-Mint Listerine is gone, they go and purchase Trojan Magnum condoms. The Trojan Magnums run out. No other kind of condom. Just the Trojan Magnums. They bring out more from the back, and those are bought up.

Interestingly enough, in theory they shouldn't have too much inventory IN the back since they're a JIT operation. They order inventory as they need it.

Wal-Mart is confused, but they order shit loads of Cool-Mint Listerine and Trojan Magnums. Their economists and management attempt to figure out where the demand for these two products are coming from. They place huge orders for Cool-Mint Listerine with Pfizer, and more condoms from Trojan. Huge orders, and perhaps modify existing contracts for more product at later dates. Wal-Mart starts purchasing options and futures contracts for latex and the chemicals in Listerine. They stock their distribution centers with Trojan Magnums and Cool-Mint Listerine.

The Plan: Return
So then, nobody has used these condoms or Cool-Mint Listerine. They've held onto them. And then on October 15th (a month after originally purchasing these), everyone returns to the store en masse to return these condoms and the Listerine. NOW, they've flooded the system. The demand for these products really existed. Now they have excess supply of Listerine and Trojan Condoms. More than that, the apparent demand on these products has affected purchasing of lubricants, home pregnancy tests, toothbrushes, and dental floss.

It's a long-term plan, though. Would this immediately cause Wal-Mart's collapse? No. But if Wal-Mart collapsed, the economy likely would, too. This is really simplistic, but with imagination, you can probably see that purchasing too much Listerine and Trojan Magnum condoms could potentially alter the economy.

Wow.

I DO have too much time on my hands.