... Wal-Mart sets the pace, even if you're not working for them.
Very interesting article in Fast Company this month about Jim Wier, CEO of Simplicity - a company that makes lawn mowers. The article walks through his company's decision to stop selling product to Wal-Mart, and the reasons why.
Wier's company is known for making lawn mowers that are passed down from father to son -- they are high quality and last for years and years. Wier reconsidered selling lawn mowers at Wal-Mart when his company had to change that strategy in order to create low-cost models required by Wal-Mart executives.
If you know nothing about maintaining a mower, Wal-Mart has helped make that ignorance irrelevant: At even $138, the lawn mowers at Wal-Mart are cheap enough to be disposable. Use one for a season, and if you can't start it the next spring (Wal-Mart won't help you out with that), put it at the curb and buy another one.
That kind of pricing changes not just the economics at the low end of the lawn-mower market, it changes expectations of customers throughout the market. Why would you buy a walk-behind mower from Snapper that costs $519? What could it possibly have to justify spending $300 or $400 more?
