BENTONVILLE — A new study by Kantar Retail, part of a British research firm with offices around the world, found that Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s supercenters offer the lowest prices on 36 national brand items when compared with prices in its online operation and with online-only competitor Amazon.com Inc.
The study found that in the edible grocery category, a basket of items surveyed at a supercenter in New England cost $115.49. The same basket cost $126.41 on Wal-Mart’s website - walmart.com - and $159.67 at amazon.com.
Non-edible grocery items that cost $81.43 at the supercenter were $105.93 atwalmart.com and $93.04 at Amazon. The category includes items such as laundry soap, dish soap, napkins, foil and paper towels.
Health and beauty items costing $80.11 at the supercenter were the same on the Bentonville-based retailer’s online operation. Amazon’s price total for the items was $86.59.
In the general merchandise category, walmart.com came in lowest with a total price of $145.74. The supercenter’s total for the same basket was $151.08, and Amazon was priced at $176.76. Among the items in that basket were men’s cushion crew socks, boys’ crew T-shirts and the board game Monopoly. On several items, the prices atwalmart.com and the supercenter were identical.
Retail analysts and consultants downplayed the impact of the pricing survey.
“Let’s face it, Wal-Mart is not the same as Amazon, and it’s only 36 [items],” said Herb Sorensen, scientific adviser with TNS Global Retail and Shopper.
The study, he said, “reinforced the belief that price is something, but it’s not everything.”
Amazon, he noted, has a system that allows customers to set up recurring orders for food, cosmetics and other goods that they purchase on a regular basis.
“They have so much technology working for them allthe time,” Sorensen said.
Paula Rosenblum, a business partner in consulting firm Retail Systems Research, also downplayed the pricing differences between the supercenters and the two online shopping sites covered in the pricing survey.
“Data shows that retailers obsess on price more than consumers do,” she said. “In a race to the bottom, nobody wins. You make your fortune by having tight cost controls and a robust top line.”
Consumers, she said, have always done price research in one form or another.
Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the study.
Among the edible grocery items included in Kantar’s survey were Bisquick original pancake mix, Skippy creamy peanut butter, Nabisco Oreo cookies, Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, Starkist solidwhite albacore tuna in water and Campbell’s low-sodium cream of mushroom soup.
Business, Pages 21 on 06/21/2012