1. Like Walmart they jawbone the supplier into giving them a better price.
Totally true. I once read an article that being a buyer at Walmart is the easiest job . Walmart tells manufacturers what they will pay to put their products on the shelf. and the manufacturer says "OK".
As a retired purchasing manager for a fortune 200 company, I seriously doubt being a buyer for Walmart is easy. Sure, they have tremendous buying power and leverage, that doesn't mean the requirements to perform at an acceptable to high level at the position is easy.
I would think the buyers, commodity managers, are pulling in North of 80k, maybe 100plus.
They don't pay person that money to whistle dixey.
Same with other big box retailers, and large corporations in manufacturing and tech--like Boeing--tremendous clout and buying power, but the expectation is to continuously perform at an ever increasing level of efficiency, while meeting and exceeding cost savings/performance metrics along the way.
I am so glad to be done with it, it's a rat race.
