Question

Why have large discount retailers such as Target and Kmart had difficulty competing against Walmart?

Answer 1

Walmart's sole advantage doesn't lie in the low cost retailing and aggressive vendor management or even the great logistic design, another thing that has also to be considered here is the differentiated advantage of Walmart with which it approaches the market where their product and also service mix is indeed placed in a way that is tightly aligned according to their capabilities where they even got to avoid big shot items like furniture etc. This integrated system of capabilities and approach has placed Walmart in that position where Target and KMart could not achieve.