These aren't the tax hikes you're looking for...
Posted on 02/15/2013 1:19:31 PM PST by mykroar
Shares of Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) fell 3 percent on Friday after Bloomberg quoted a mid-level executive's email as saying the world's largest retailer had the worst sales start to any month in seven years in February.
Wal-Mart executives blamed the poor sales performance on increased payroll taxes as well as delayed tax returns, Bloomberg said.
Higher payroll taxes this year are seen as a potential problem for Wal-Mart and other discount retailers that try to attract lower-income customers who have less disposable income.
"In case you haven't seen a sales report these days, February (month-to-date) sales are a total disaster," Jerry Murray, a Wal-Mart vice president who works on finance in the U.S. logistics division, said in a February 12 email to other executives, Bloomberg reported. "The worst start to a month I have seen in my (about) 7 years with the company."
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Looks like we’re in for another “Recovery Summer.”
Those must be tax hikes on the 1%. < eye roll>
I admit that when it comes to matters of economics, I am not your go-to girl, but I find it puzzling that sales for a particular month can be tabulated and analyzed when that month is just barely half over. Don’t they need to see the figures for the entire month?
The guy in the excerpt is just talking about “February month to date sales”.
Well, when their ammo cabinet is EMPTY, I’ll shop elsewhere.
HALF the reason I go to walmart is to get ammo along with my other stuff.
That is THE thing that makes them different from target etc.
They compare Jan 2013 to Jan 2012. And, Wal Mart has instant sales analysis, their inventory system is second to none on earth.
Most companies keep a day by day chart along with a cumulative month to date total. Plus they know what their daily average should be and can compare February to date’s average with that.
Usually they also compare their current February sales to this date figures with last years.
You do not wait until the month is complete to look at your sales. You keep track each day and use this to schedule advertising and sales (The one where you cut prices to try and drive up actual sales. That is confusing by using sales (as in running a sale) and sales (as in the amount you sold)in the same sentence.)
Indeed. To be followed by a “second-half story”. It could be a “Goldilocks economy” again.
I assume they have a lot of historical data to compare to,
and all they had to do was look at the first couple of weeks to say “oh... crap”.
And, this was supposedly a “leaked” memo, as well.
My best guess is that Walmart's sales have dropped because they ran out of guns and ammo. As far as I can tell, they are restocking very slowly, if at all.
If they had any ammo in stock maybe their sales would have been higher.
Anyone shopped there lately? WM groceries leave something to be desired. We don’t get fruits, meats etc there at all anymore. Looks awful. Our local Kroger is full all the time now while WM Grocery across the street has only a few in their parking lots. Used to be the opposite.
These aren't the tax hikes you're looking for...
We’re all 1-percenters now...
comprehensive close
4:00 PM ET 2/15/2013
$ 69.30 -1.52 (2.15%)
Their own pizzas are excellent IMO.
Enjoy it moron Obama voters! Reap what you sow.
As Rush has been harping on this week -
the 0bama voters believe that these consequences have nothing to do with 0bama’s policies and are something he has been fighting to fix since he was first elected.
If anything, to them, dire financial news just means that 0bama is needed more than ever.
payroll taxes = SS and MEDICARE
Obama would be able to fix this, but he’s busy with golf lessons.
Walmarts’s? The frozen pizzas or the refrigerated ones?
Yep, divisions set their plans up based upon these predictions. Division level buyers prepare, and local level management all schedule their labor based upon this as well. It has huge implications for being this far off.
I’m in Retail, too - and our sales have been slower this month, but we’ve had some pretty horrific weather this winter, which is part of it. Oh, and people are losong jobs, losing homes and they’re broke.
As for Wal-Mart, I blame myself. I haven’t been to Wal-Mart in a month. Because...wait for it...
I’M BROKE!
I agree about the quality of their produce. Plus I spend too much money when I shop at WM. Having so much under one roof makes it hard to stick to buying just the basic food items.
Spent some years in the biz and every month, every quarter, the general reaction out there at store level was “whoever made the sales projections must have been smoking crack!”
how unexpected!
I am sure Obama will get right on this! (right after he gets back from his latest vacation and golfing trip)
The produce at Walmart is often rotten or pretty close to it. I do some of my grocery shopping there and some at Target. Kroger can be overpriced...some items cost more than twice what they would elsewhere, so I buy only certain things from them. Boy, do I miss Harris Teeter.
The other day, I stopped at Walmart to pick up some hair color because Target was out. Walmart had the color I wanted, but I didn’t get it because the boxes were dented, beat-up, ragged, and some were half-opened.
The cosmetic section was in a similar condition. Nail polish bottles and lipsticks had been opened and the products smeared all over the fixtures.
they just built a new one by me so I stopped in to purchase some ammo,shelves empty, went to garden section to purchase holder for garden hose, nobody could find any in the whole store. Left and went to ace hardware to get hose hanger went home.
I bet Walmart sales have dropped because the roaring economy has sent everyone over to Bloomingdale’s,dahling!
Thanks.
Thanks for the info.
Okay, thanks for the information.
LOL!! That's actually a really good, indisputable point.
The grocery chain I used to work for calculated their labor by “sales per man hour” and the more successful your store was somehow the less labor you got the next year...
I went in a few days ago and they were out of everything except shotgun shells. The weird this is they got in one ammo can of .223,
which was snatched up instantly, of course. Considering they didn't even have a 50 round carton of the stuff, it seemed strange.
Refrigerated. They have three or four kinds and I think three sizes. I think the prices range from like five bucks to maybe ten bucks.
That sounds like the logic of a department getting their budget cut if they don’t spend all of the previous year’s budget.
I’ll try that sometime, thanks.
LOL!!
Walmart is publicly traded and so, their figures are published. But it isn’t just Walmart. It is the locally-owned tire shop, the private practice veterinarian, the massage therapist, the manufacturer & vendor for the *recession-proof* sewing industry, the chiropractic supply and every other little business in America. YOY is about the same: s-l-o-w.
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