Great quote about Wal-Mart
That really is why Wal-Mart won, not just over the mom & pops, but over K-mart as well. They did a lot of other things that clearly helped, such as aggressively expanding into suburban areas that other retail chains deemed too sparsely populated to support a large store, having stricter hiring standards and paying a little more, or having an unusual focus on customer service.
But the real kicker is the way they used technology and scientific methods to improve the supply chain. ROI is the lifeblood of retail, and WalMart was able to keep more products better-stocked at lower prices than their competitors because of their advanced logistics. They could have hired every store full of crackheads who spit their AIDs-ridden saliva on customers as soon as they walked in the door, but as long as they were selling 10 different garden hoses at $5 each and K-mart had 3 garden hoses starting at $10, they were going to win.
