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Wal-MART almost always forces manufacturers to create a special version of their lowest end product model so they can sell it cheaper than anyone else
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Walmart doesn't force any manufacturers any more than any other company that solicits vendors to make products to particular specs, assuming they do. If the company does not want to cater to Wal-Mart's specs, Wal-Mart can't make them comply. All that happens is that the manufacturer will lose a very important customer.
With that said, Wal-Mart probably does get many or most of the products that they sell at a lower price than anyone else because of economies of scale. With so many stores, Wal-mart probably sells more product than the others. That makes Wal-mart to be the single largest and most important customer of the manufacturer.
It isn't just Wal-Mart that may want manufacturers to make special store brand unique versions. This allows the stores to offer really good sounding price guarentees, refunding the difference in price of the item plus maybe even some bonus additional amount if the customer finds the same product elsewhere for less than what the customer paid. The great refund offered is something of a joke. Customers will not be able to find the same product elsewhere for less money because the product is unique to that particular store brand.