Another insult for EDLP

No one disputes the philosophy that every day low prices enabled Walmart to achieve dramatic growth, but pricing studies continue to reveal a marketplace where price separation relative to competitors has become difficult to achieve.

In fact, the most recent survey by Customer Growth Parners (CGP) shows Target beat Walmart on a basket of goods when prices were checked in late March in four markets. Target was 0.6% lower than Walmart compared with the prior month when it was 0.7% lower. The CGP study follows a similar pricing comparison the prior week from Credit Suisse that show Walmart was 4.2% lower that Target at stores in Dallas and Chicago.

“The 2011 data represent the first time Target has achieved nominal price parity versus Walmart since Customer Growth Partners started its price checks in 2006,” according to the firm’s president Craig Johnson.

The basket of items examined included categories such as grocery, household chemicals, paper products, personal care, HBA and commonly purchased general merchandise items. Store pairs included in the study were located in Florida, Indiana, New York and Connecticut.