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Comment by mwsherman | Hacker News Reader

Maybe the limiting factor is the ability to integrate with backend inventory, etc. I suspect there is no lightweight (read: inexpensive developer) way to do this.

(Which makes me wonder if there is a Wordpress for ERP.)

The other way to look at it is that for the 2-3 top players in a sector, there can never be off-the-shelf. WalMart’s differentiation is incredible supply chain, which they had to invent. Being a big guy means you are doing something different, almost by definition.

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Walmart is also pushing hard into R&D, see http://www.walmartlabs.com/ . Of all the traditional retailers, I'd say Wallyworld is the most invested in 21st century retail tactics and actually doing a decent job of it.

I took a look at that website and noticed alot of the job openings were very similar to job openings of Start-ups.

Except you're working for a corporation that is actively evil. Walmart has a long history of discriminating against women [1]; has an extremely high percentage of employees who are on welfare (it's at minimum unseemly for an employed person to be paid so poorly they still need welfare) (examples from ohio[2]; general [3]; arkansas [4]; washington [5]); works hard to avoid giving health insurance to their employees -- as of 2005 they only covered 44% [6]; etc etc etc. There are far more reasons than the type of work to avoid working for a corporation with such a refined sense of ethics.

[1] http://www.walmartclass.com/public_home.html

[2] http://www.politifact.com/ohio/statements/2011/jan/12/robert...

[3] http://www.alternet.org/story/22298/

[4] http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=...

[5] http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002791346_w...

[6] http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/oct2005/nf200510...

Yeah I have to agree with you there, it would be hard for me to believe that Walmart would not cut high pay developers at the first opportunity. I remember AT&T forcing my paraplegic developer buddy to train his Indian replacement or face instant termination. To me Walmart seems like the same kind of, eternal quest for profit type organization.

Wallmart Labs was the result of a purchased of an engineering company (Kosmix.com)

http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/18/walmart-ventures-into-the-s...

There are several candidates for "Wordpress for ERP"; try OpenERP, Openbravo, and Compiere.

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