AP is anti war , anti WALMART and Anti America.
Posted on 01/01/2006 1:16:56 PM PST by BenLurkin
NEW YORK (AP) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which made a big push this holiday season to woo customers with aggressive discounts and marketing, estimated that its December sales will meet only the low end of its forecast.
The world's largest retailer said Saturday that sales at stores open for at least a year, known as same-store sales, are expected to be up 2.2 percent in December. The forecast was for a 2 percent to 4 percent gain. Same-store sales are considered the best indicator of a retailers' health.
The company said that general merchandise sales outpaced demand for food.
Wal-Mart, which stumbled during the holiday 2004 shopping season, came out with a holiday campaign two weeks earlier than last year. The retailer had a solid start to the season, but like many merchants, struggled with shoppers delaying their purchases longer than last year.
Wal-Mart, whose gift card sales beat expectations this season, is counting on a big sales boost in January from gift card redemptions. Gift card sales are recorded only when customers redeem them.
To entice customers with the newfound money to splurge on regular-priced goods, Wal-Mart rushed in new spring assortments and new outerwear for the day after Christmas. Meanwhile, it pushed discounted holiday goods to the back corner.
Wal-Mart and many other major retailers are expected to announce their final December results on Thursday.
Could it be that people are shopping at other retailers and online?????????
This is not a Wal Mart bash because I like Wal-Mart. Just a real life observation.
Could it be that people would rather go online than buy the crap that Wal Mart sells?
Never mind the two percent INCREASE, everything is BAD. Sales are low, America is evil and the sky is falling.
Wal-mart IS cheap. But I can't stand waiting in those lines. My time is worth more than a couple of samolians.
Maybe people are starting to realize that walmart buys the lowest grade beef they can and let it sit in order to make it edible.
And then they inject their poultry with enough sodium to kill a person in order to make it palatable...
People buy their food their because they either don't read the content or they don't care...
Closest Wal Mart to me is 40 minutes away. Too crowded, with merchandise tossed around all over the place. The manager needs to be replaced IMHO.
And it is Bush's fault!!!
Well, if the trees do not grow to the skies, then everything [Wal-Mart included] will sooner or later hit its ceiling. Wherever the position of this ceiling might be, Wal-Mart is obviously approaching it.
AP is anti war , anti WALMART and Anti America.
How many people that got injured because Wal Mart didn't use common sense precautions when they were loss leading computers and electronics?
How many sales did they lose from angry customers when Wal Mart over-advertised and understocked on purpose?
I also am not a WM basher, but this Christmas they truly acted abysmally. They don't get my sympathy.
Walmart didn't have any special that made me want to run out, jump in the car, and drive the whole 2 miles over there.
Even their Black Friday early morning shopper special items weren't in the realm of spectacular.
On another note, online sales were obscene this year. Bestbuy and Circuit City servers were at a standstill for a full month. Amazon.com was swamped. LLBean online was almost unusable.
Hint: Buy stock in UPS and DHL. This will be a continuing trend.
There was a post a couple of days ago about Internet sales. They were very large this year.
I bought 'my gift to me' via the Internet. It is a desk chair with a metal base. No supplier in this small town had them.
The one I bought at Walmart a couple of years ago broke -- and I didn't want another with a nylon/plastic/propholyne/plastic base. Shopping the Internet was the only viable means of finding one with a metal base.
I just didn't feel much like shopping and there didn't seem to be much of a holiday atmosphere around ours. People seemed tired. I gave cash to the grown kids. A lot of people were saying family wanting things like gas and grocery cards. Funny about the food though. Ours couldn't keep the nuts and bakery stuff going.
Walmart already has online shopping.
http://www.walmart.com
How do you know who you can trust though? I saw a lot of specialty stores on line but I wasn't comfortable giving personal information out.
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