Posted on 11/01/2009 3:07:20 AM PST by Saije
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has a problem.
The world's biggest retailer tips the scales at just over $400 billion (U.S.) in annual sales. It is a perpetual growth machine. But it doesn't have a stock valuation to match.
At Wal-Mart, repeatedly held out as a winner in this recession as consumers traded down, sales will barely budge in the current fiscal year, ending Jan. 31. Despite the bargain hunters and the demise of weaker rivals, Wal-Mart revenues will edge up just 1 per cent in fiscal 2010.
Wall Street fell out of love with "The Beast of Bentonville" (for its Arkansas headquarters) early this decade. In the 1990s, Wal-Mart stock soared 1,173 per cent. But since 2000, the stock has been "dead money," in Street parlance, dropping 29 per cent.
Wal-Mart long ago reached a size where stratospheric short-term growth was impossible. It operates 3,600 stores in the U.S. alone, where it employs about one million Americans. It is also among the largest general merchandisers in Britain, Mexico and Canada. But unless such larger-than-life enterprises are unceasingly vigilant, the end game is that of General Motors Co.***
(Excerpt) Read more at thestar.com ...
A large chain of stores went out of business in germany and tadoy i woke up at 6 am for their online sale but the site never loaded.
It is where i got my furniture, computer, shoes...
LOAD DAMN IT!!!!!!!!
(sorry, so soory, a little tense i guess....)
As a long term employee, I would not invest in Walmart stock. There newest released program institutes a new layer of “middle” management. There are 4 in virtually every store, and as far as I can figure, their job is to talk on their cell phones. Also, in another attempt to copy Target, there will no longer be 4 way displays in the main alleys. The new stores were designed with aisles wide enough to easily accomodate these displays, but come January it will be non productive square footage. The fact of the matter is that the big boys have no clue and no longer listen to the people on the ground.
Ve hafe vays of makin’ you loat. You hafe relatifes in Zilezia, nein?
Target is a massive supporter of liberal causes, far more than any other retailer.
Both Marshall Fields and Target were big contributors to Planned Parenthood.
They claim they have stopped, but if you know liberals, they merely launder the money another way.
“the problem, in a nutshell, is that Wal-Mart still sells on price alone. Depth of inventory is too costly to carry. Fashionability does not extend to natural fabrics. And, as with the recent experience of a Time reporter canvassing a new Wal-Mart in New Jersey, I, too, left my Wal-Mart after an hour having been smiled at by none of the two dozen or so employees I encountered. Even the greeter hadn’t noticed me. It’s not often that shoppers return to a store where their presence didn’t matter to anyone there, except when price is their only concern.”
A Time reporter offers the solution-Bwwwwaaaaaah!!!!!
Are you kidding me!!!
This is all my humble opinion, that and 50 cents gets you on a bus.
Everyone takes a shot at #1.
Wal-Mart is facing problems, but then again who in the retail business isn’t?
That really depends on how the collectivists manage to screw things up. They've been trying for years to unionize using lies, smears, and every other trick in the book to get their thieving hands into the till.
i quit...one of the 4 co-managers (2 on overnight alone) apparently decided she didn’t want to accept that i am pregnant and cannot perform at the level i used to...before i got pregnant, i pulled my weight and everybody else’s b/c the area i worked in before had no supervision b/c management was too stupid to hire another supervisor (backroom needs it), so they slacked an insane amount. we unloaded trucks, then i kept track of the backroom inventory. they would throw freight around no matter what it was...so much money is lost in claims b/c they are lazy.
and i did the stock option, but it was just stable enough for me to use it as a savings account. hubby keeps his still too, but after christmas im thinking about clearing it out...i’ll just keep a mason jar here at the house.
sam walton is spinning in his grave constantly at the “improved” direction walmart is heading...i was disgusted every day i had to go to work once i saw how management “cared” so much...for example, i would point out a problem that if fixed could save money and improve morale and efficiency....but they decided to just let it be for whatever reason. it sickened me to deal with the same problems every single day.
don’t work for walmart.
ps-i smiled at every single person i passed when i was on the floor, and when i was a people greeter for 1 month overnight, i greeted every customer and kept the entrance immaculate...but im a dying breed, you know, the people that take pride in their work.
Congratulations on the baby. I’m hoping for a conservative! For the record I also smile at customers and try to be of service. I really don’t hate my job, but trying to do the work of three people does get old. It’s the co managers I was referring to, and at my store we call them shift managers, but leave out the “f”. Enjoy staying home with the baby as long as you can. No body else can do that job except you and hubby!
Which one?
(I did most of my shopping at BreuningerLand and some at Multi-Mart.)
I thought the article would be about Walmart getting into the casket and burial services. It wouldn’t surprise me to see them sell caskets.
Hmmm. How about a full-time Wal-Mart shop-at-home channel?
Quelle Scheiß.
There are lots of rural communities with a population of 5,000 and another 3,000 within a 15 mile radius that would be well served by a smaller food/dry goods/automotive super center. With free ship to store service, it would fill in for the things they were unable to carry as store stock.
The Walmart stores are in the area, but they involve a 50 mile round trip in many cases.
Well I have an idea for Wal-Mart to continue their massive growth but most likely my idea will fall on deaf ears.
If I was CEO of Wal-Mart, I would begin manufacturing some of my my staple items - here in America. For instance, Wal-Mart must sell a gazillion pairs of blue jeans every year. Well, instead of having them made in China and having them shipped by boat across the Pacific, why not open a blue jean factory in say, Louisiana, and sell American-made jeans?
Now these jeans would probably still cost a little more than those you can get from China (because after all, you aren't going to find 13-year-olds working for fifteen cents a day) but so what? Americans have shown that they are willing to pay a premium for a quality product - look at Apple, for example. Apple may not be as big as Microsoft in terms of revenue but they are right up there in terms of profit. And isn't profit what it's all about?
As well, Wal-Mart would begin slowly dispelling the notion that they are nothing more than a dumping ground of shoddily made foreign goods and will at the same time open up new avenues for growth.
Maybe they should offer the whole deal for the dearly departed: Embalming, Funeral Services, and burial plots.
Sort of a getaway package. “An infinite number of days and nights at a destination of your choice!”
I shop at Walmart at times. I do not browse there, I go in for something I know will be at a certain price point and I need it. I stopped in for a movie, I should have known better. I read an article here on FR that stated Walmart’s longterm plan is to downsize it’s video department due to a drop in sales. I picked up the new Tinkerbell movie, but it was not on sale. I approached the sales counter in the video department and asked about the pricing, as I would go over to Target and check their price if I had to pay full price at Walmart. The clerk informed me that she had permission from local management to discount the movie just for today to the price at Target. So she called Target and inquired about their price and discounted the movie for me. She said they were recently surprised to find out Walmart would no longer routinely discount movies. I told her I would remember that and shop accordingly next time. She did smile and apologize for the hassle.
I humbly disagree, manufacturing would be a waste of capital. It's too capital intensive not enough ROI to excite them.
They need to look at what they do. They sell stuff. They should find other areas and other products to sell.
Philip Morris is the best example of a well run company that I can point to. Back in the late 70’s they had 20 manufacturing companies contributing a half billion to revenues. They dumped the entire division. They knew their business was marketing anything under say $10.00 so they bought Kraft.
One thing I noticed this year was that they had very few pumpkins for Halloween and they were not as perfect as before. I was wondering if they did that because of the economy or whether no one would sell them any pumpkins. We used to grow for them but we won’t sell them any produce anymore.
I don’t know other than all inventory is kept at a minimum these days. Can I ask why you no longer sell to them? I actually buy my pumpkins from local “pick them yourself” farms. Better prices and quality and of course the fun of it!
I want Walmart to offer medical care - done by computer with a doctor doing the final check... (medical care by ATM machine...)
WalMart employees are just like the general population, some nice, some not so nice, they just don’t seem to be encouraged to put on their “game face”.
In the beginning, Sam Walton was still alive, they offered a good price for a good product, we sent them nothing but perfection. They were so fair that one year when we had a contract with them at 7 cents a pound and the price soared to 12 cents that they took extra loads at 12 cents to even it out.
Then they just got dishonest, nothing was perfect enough for them. They would negotiate a price and when the product got there they’d discount the price for bogus reasons. We got to where when they did that to us we just resold the load and sent it on down the road and it didn’t take long to learn not to even try to sell to them.
You know what I mean ;D!
Quelle
That’s almost laughable because so much of the produce they now sell is second rate. I was reading labels and was amazed.. well not really.. but at least surprised that the oranges at Walmart were from South Africa.
I know and their prices are higher than the hometown supermarket.
I rarely work produce, but on the times that I have we literally pick over the veggies and fruit. The waste is just unreal.
You must work at an ill-run store. My wife is one of those new layer of “middle” management. She leaves her cell phone in her locker because it is against policy to have it on her while on the clock. She is as busy as she has ever been and is succeeding in her new position. Her store has benefited from the structural change and the new inventory management procedures.
My understanding of the removal of the 4-ways and stackbases from the AA’s is it was in response to customer input.
As far as investing in their stock: we sold ours years ago when we figured that the market was headed for the toilet. We also decided to never again invest in the market due to government involvement in it.
I wouldn’t say my store was so much badly ran, as understaffed. Perhaps your wife is one of the new zone managers. This is not the position I’m talking about. It’s the shift manager that used to be called co-manager. On overnights they do nothing. We only recently started the program so I’m not sure how well it will work, but without people to do it I see major problems. They always attribute change to customer satisfaction but in reality they are just copying Target. That is why we now have the uniform and why music is no longer in the stores.
The shift managers here bust their butts and the store reflects that. My wife is happy, and yes she is a ZMS. I tend to be fairly critical in regards WalMart stores, as I used to be an assistant. The store I was at was ill-run by a petty District manager and a horses-ass Store manager, so I know the difference. Sorry to hear of your situation, because I know how frustrating that can be based on my experience. Most of the company is not like that, but like any company they have their bad stores and people.
If you’ve never shopped at Walmart, then how do you know how the patrons and their children behave?
I have no problem with the zone managers. They do have a lot on their plate. I really hope it works out, but I just can’t see it without the support behind it. Many nights instead of just one department or two, I am expected to work the whole GM side. It’s crazy. Then you see the backroom zone manager, the shift manager and the ON assistant sitting in the office chatting. Seems like we are heavy on chiefs these days.
I think I implied that when I have shopped there the experience was negative. If you like your experience with Walmart, have at it. Apparently millions of folks do. I am not one of them. As I stated, I will go there for one or two things once a year.
Yeah really. Like average americans are limited to shopping at Walmart. There are people wherever we go. Some idiots, some not.
I love Walmart! However, I never do grocery shopping there. I find that if I’m shopping for cereal and decide I need ziplocks or a quart of oil, I have to walk my ass of aimlessly. I prefer a grocery store for my grub.
I though this would be about their move to sell coffins. You can put them on lay-a-way.
Oh and I forgot. The meat sucks. It has too many additives.
Like I said, your store is mis-managed. It’s a shame. I would transfer or quit. I walked away from the store I worked at and left a darn good salary behind. Just my take on it.
This is my third transfer, For many years I did LP and was in a lot of stores. Some good some bad. This one is somewhere in the middle. I don’t hate it, and some nights I actually like it. You just have to remind yourself that there is only so much one person can do.
Well, good luck on it. Maybe your next manager will have the smarts and spine to run your store properly.
They have started carrying prime grade meat at my local Walmart. It is very limited and they seem to mix choice grade in, so you have to pay attention to the labeling.
I’m buying meat at Sam’s club. I got really tired of spending money on sub-par meat and Sam’s has a good selection of prime grade meat. I pay more, but it is less expensive than going out to a premium steak house.
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