BULLETIN: Walmart Enters Home-Delivery Grocery Business; Retail Giant Testing ‘Walmart To Go’ Concept In California; News May Be Potentially Devastating To MPB Today Affiliates Because Of MLM’s Up-Front Fees, High Shipping Costs And ‘Dry Goods’ ONLY Policy
BULLETIN: Walmart said today that it was testing a grocery home-delivery concept known as “Walmart To Go” in the San Jose, Calif., market. Walmart.com visitors can test the availability of home delivery in their area by entering their address and Zip code into a form at the Walmart.com website. (Link at bottom of story.)
The news may cause an uproar among affiliates of a Florida-based MLM company known as MPB Today, which charges recruits $200 to become MLM affiliates, assesses a website fee, does not deliver perishable items and charges a shipping and handling fee that could cause the price of $200 worth of “dry goods” groceries to soar to $300 or more.
MPB Today affiliates say the company dispenses $200 Walmart gift cards to enrollees. If Walmart’s own home-delivery business takes off, it could destroy any incentive for MPB Today prospects ever to do business with the MLM because the Walmart program eliminates the middleman and has features that MPB Today cannot touch, including the delivery of fresh food at a far lower cost.
A current promo for Walmart To Go” shows that the company is charging a delivery fee of as little as $5, offering a “Freshness Guarantee” and making items such a frozen foods and fresh produce available. One product viewed by the PP Blog was a 6-oz. package of Foster Farms Grilled Chicken Breast Strips for $2.50.
The website outlined the nutritional content of the product and included a label titled “Nutrition Facts.” As an opening offer, the company published a coupon good for free delivery on a customer’s first grocery order of $49 or more. A photograph of a fresh tomato adorned the offer, and Walmart also said that items such as eggs, dairy products, fresh produce, meat and over-the-counter pharmacy items were available.
Details about how Walmart would roll out the new venture were not immediately clear.
Walmart created a logo for Walmart To Go. The logo features an artsy depiction of a shopping cart. “Need some inspiration?” the company asked. “Start with one of our quick lists.”
The “quick lists” reference included a link that opened a browser window that showed customers a gateway to ordering fresh food for themselves in multiple categories. The page also featured a tab through which customers also could order pet food and items such as laundry detergent.
Many MPB Today members have told prospects that the MLM company was part of a partnership with Walmart. Walmart did not confirm those claims, and today has launched its own home-delivery venture.
MPB Today affiliates have been the source of bizarre claims and sales presentations, including one that depicted President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as Nazis. First Lady Michelle Obama was depicted in the MPB Today promo as having experienced an embarrassing gas attack in the Oval Office after sampling “beans” at a Sam’s Club Store.
Other MPB Today affiliates have claimed there are liars and thieves in the organization, and it was important for prospects to register for the “program” under an affiliate who would not misrepresent the truth in order to gain a downline commission.
MPB Today itself said it was possible for an affiliate who made a “one-time” $200 purchase to receive free groceries for life. Critics immediately scoffed at the claims.
Visit the Walmart To Go page.
Patrick:
I am stunned mind you, stunned that Walmart is not setting this up as a MLM program with a 2×2 Matrix. What were they thinking?
Just in case anyone missed it, I am being sarcastic.
I find this quite bemusing – Wallmart own UK supermarket ASDA, and they have offered home delivery (as have most/all the major supermarkets) for a number of years. None of which have a MLM “program” bolted on.
Of course, with MPB Today, the delivery business was irrelevant, it was vastly over priced & limited. The only important thing was to sell the opportunity to some other sucker, as demonstrated by the pyramid diagrams in the promo vids.
The big difference between normal supermarket deliveries, which we use in UK and the Walmart one, may be that Walmart deliver to rural areas. I have had a monthly delivery from Waitrose every month for years and they only charge £3 if I spend over £50 because I live in a three mile radius cachment area. I can shop at several different branches of Waitrose and still be within the delivery area.
If I lived in a country area, I would use a free bus that most of our supermarkets provide. America is such a huge country that people in rural areas may need delivery services. If they deliver things that can not be delivered cost effectively by mail, Walmart with destroy the scam affiliate services very quickly, just as Partick says.
We probable would not need similar service to places in a small country like UK because it pays supermarkets to lay on free busses.
Unfair competition…!! Walmart is deliberately undercutting MPB by delivering full value for the money, not $100 worth of groceries for $210. Sounds like MPB should sue…! (tongue planted firmly in cheek)
On serious note, I would love to have it Wal-Mart delivery here in New Jersey. We consume tons of bottled water(sue me). I could have delivery from my local shop(they deliver for free), but they deliver to the building door, not up to the floor where I live.
LOL, DrDave/ken russo will have a fit! MPB is the best program he has ever seen.
I guess we should expect one last attempt to snag new victims before MPB implodes.
Expect Russos’ next missive to be something along the lines of:
“MPB Todays’ idea is so new and groundbreaking, even Walmart has copied it. Get in now while you still can”
It does amazes me at how blind and uninformed some of you are. First off if Walmart decided to do this and cut MPB Today out as a wholesale customer. There are several other grocer’s out there will to supply the groceries. Competition is a great thing. Then as far as delivering the perishables goods, you might want to keep a close eye on it as the hubs are starting to open and people are not only getting their groceries delivered, they are able to schedule pickups. Pick the kids up at 3:30 and your groceries at 3:45 and head home. We put them in the car for you!!! I understand it has taken longer than anticipated but it is happening now. It is nice to see you do not believe in MPB Today but you may want to keep up with them so you can keep your facts straight. I have been in and out of network marketing for 30 years and this is the best program I have seen. I like the Dream Killers out there that try to inform people but they are wrong in their information. Check out the latest MLMrankings.com results and look at their trend report. Choke on it later as it will continue to grow. When you are wrong you are wrong. You really missed it this time.
Walmart had absolutely NOTHING to do with MPB so let’s just stop at that lie right there.
Received a short presentation on MPB from a friend. Seemed hokey (and I don’t mean Virginia Tech hokies), but listened. Sales math is stacked against the distributor. “Pay once, make only 2 sales and vested forever” simply isn’t correct. Yes, you “pay once” but have to sell, up to 6, for every cycle to complete…or you don’t get the guaranteed payout. The average person statistically can only get 2.3 people involved into an enterprise like this. So it works fine for one cycle, then it will get harder and harder for the average person.
I checked MLMrankings.com as the person touted above…rankings are down, interest is down. That didn’t bother me as much as running the realistical math/sales for the average person. There’s no value gain to my connections when I sell them the product/service so a no-win for them is a no-win for me. Too bad…this concept could be modified to really help the average person and family, especially in current economy, but the real numbers work only for the greedy less-than-standard service providing types. This won’t hurt financially as much as other companies can/do; but it will still cost some face.
Researching the ownership of a company is important to get to the real heart and intent of a company and it’s future direction. This appears to be set up for a short-term proposition.
I’ll keep looking.
I just assumed it had already died the silent death that most of these scams do.