When Walmart executives speak about prices, inflation or the nation’s economic condition their comments create quite a stir, and that’s what we saw again this week when Bill Simon spoke to USA Today.

Family Dollar is at the midpoint of its fiscal year, and on track to open a total of 300 new stores, the company announced in conjunction with the release of it second-quarter financial results. Dollar stores have emerged as a key competitive threat to Walmart as they have beefed up assortments of food and consumables and their abundant stores are often more convenient than Walmart’s supercenters. A few weeks earlier, Dollar General said it would open 625 stores during it fiscal year.

With 329 stores in China producing $7.5 billion in sales annually, Walmart has experienced dramatic growth since it entered the market in 1996 with two stores. Last year, the company pursued its most aggressive expansion to date with the opening of 49 stores, and at a meeting for financial analysts earlier this week in Shenzhen, China, senior executives detailed plans to get a lot bigger.

No one disputes the philosophy that every day low prices enabled Walmart to achieve dramatic growth, but pricing studies continue to reveal a marketplace where price separation relative to competitors has become difficult to achieve.