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.
Make sense - I got a copy of "It's A Wonderful Life" for $12.46!
Online shopping these days is pretty secure and if you use credit cards you have additional protection.
For the best protection, I use "virtual" credit cards to do all my online shopping, from the big guys down to the use-once stores. It's a feature of my credit-card company (Citibank in my case) that generates a unique credit-card number for me on demand that expires in 45-60 days and can be used only at one merchant. But all these virtual cards tie to my real account, so it's no hassle for my billing.
That way, even if someone gets hold of the card number, it only works at one place and expires soon after - and that assumes the fraud isn't caught and reversed.
Very handy, and I'm sure all the card companies will have it eventually.
I bought a SONY 50 inch LCD projection TV from Sam's club. Did I buy crap?
Good. Now maybe, if they stopped taking returns on used undergarments and bathing suits, they'd get the finicky-shopper demographic, of which I am proud to be one.
Yeah, I'm a Wal-Mart hater. What else could I be, knowing their deplorable attitude toward hygiene?
(For Exhibit B, I give you any Wal-Mart. I defy you to show me one store that has clean corners. Every Wal-Mart I've had the displeasure to enter has been dirty at best and filthy at worst.)
The bargain bin at Wal-Mart was $5.50 the week before Christmas -- I picked up a number of good kid films as presents. But even back before Thanksgiving, I was finding 2 DVD's for $12 at Borders with a number of films that I've enjoyed in the past.
"The Post Office surely believes you. Rates and tempers are rising."
The Post Office has been pretty good. Express Mail is an excellent service at a good price.
Federal Express is advertising for private contractors who can buy or lease a FedEx truck and do home deliveries. This is a great opportunity for people with the ability and resources to lease several trucks and grab a territory.
I am sorry they sold you that crap. I feel so bad about it that I feel compelled to take it off your hands just so you won't feel bad for buying crap. That's just the kind of crapper person I am.
Thanks for the info - I'll keep that in mind when I'm out and about.
Could it be that people would rather go online than buy the crap that Wal Mart sells?>>>>>>>>>
An awful lot of the "crap" is the same brand name "crap" that other stores sell. A Samsung is a Samsung whether it comes from WalMart, BestBuy or CircuitCity. If you are referring to clothing there are many brand names which are actually made in the same foreign factories and simply have a different name label. The idea that a higher price automatically buys better quality is a fiction.
If the sales are nominal sales, then 2% is significantly below inflation - in other words, they sold less in real terms. I have no idea whether these are real or nominal sales figures...
The best thing about it is that you can use their "Gift cards" and not have to give out your CC number.
Cool....Can I get a job as a WalMart chicken injector? Lordy...take it to DU!
I assure you I wasn't at Wal-Mart on Christmas Day - no need to take the comment literally. Actually shopped on the 21st, middle of the day, still dimly lit and virtually empty.
Thanks for the laugh...LOL
Hmmmmm...why do you lower your status by gracing their doors with your presence?
I don't mind the Post Office. I found this past year that their shipping rates seemed to be better than UPS. Nothing lost either, coming or going.
Do not know how this could be. Every store I went to in December was packed with customers with carts full of merchandise. People only have so much money to spend so maybe retailers were expecting too much of an increase, since there has not been a huge boom in wages this past year. Can't help but think that retailers did alright this Christmas season though.
Its only estimates anyway - plus the gift card sales aren't recorded until the cards are cashed.
"I shop for high-end quality products, stuff Walmart usually does not carry."
Ding, ding, ding.... We have a winner!
And at Christmas, people seek out the high end stuff. When I went to my local Wal-Mart during the Christmas season, I saw alot of Toys and lower end electronics in peoples baskets. Wal-Mart sells on the lower end of the electronic stuff which means alot of that stuff being bought was going to their kids or other relatives. You will hardly find the Sony, Panasonic, etc stuff they sell at Wal-Mart at Best Buy, etc. But when if comes to buying for a spouse or an older child, you go to the Best Buys, Circuit Cities, etc., of the world and buy them the lastest or close to latest stuff. Try buying a 8 Meg Pix camera at Wal Mart.
crAP needs to start hiring economic reporters with some common since.
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