Posted on 08/15/2013 12:48:39 PM PDT by rightwingintelligentsia
Walmart (WMT) reported earnings of $1.24 a share this morning on revenues of $116.2 billion. Analysts had been expecting $1.25 on $118.5 billion. Sales in stores open more than a year declined 0.3%. Walmart also guided lower for the full year citing a "challenging sales and operating environment." The stock is off sharply and at risk of going negative for the last 52 weeks.
Those are the numbers, but not the whole story. Walmart is the thermometer of the American economy. Disregard the government data. Jobs and GDP and all the rest are at best inaccurate measures of the economy and at worst flat out corrupt. Walmart is capitalism writ large. The entire organization is focused on nothing but selling goods and services to Americans. It may be an empire in decline, but Walmart sells more than $1 billion worth of merchandise per day in a bad quarter. When Walmart misses estimates, it can only mean one of two things: either Walmart or the American economy is weaker than anyone thought.
"Walmart is a terrific operator... They didn't suddenly become stupid," says says Howard Davidowitz, one of the top retail minds in the country. "The economy is in collapse. That's what's going on."
Davidowitz points out that Walmart isn't just a store for the downtrodden. They have 150 million customers which collectively spent less in Walmart stores than in the same period last year. Davidowitz says another 50 million customers shop at Target (TGT), which he also expects to have negative comp stores sales when it reports next week.
--snip--
Either the best merchants in America forgot how to sell, Americans stopped consuming beyond their means, or the economy is turning south, not getting better.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
Besides, you can meet some of the most interesting people you’re apt to ever see in America...
I hate being in WalMart, they always have crap in the aisles making the place difficult to navigate even when there aren’t people, then there’s the people half of whom always seem to come attached to kids that are screaming, and of course there’s the incredible lack of floor staff so forget getting help finding things, and then another lack of staff at the registers and the ones that are there are slow. Worst store in the world (although the way Best Buy is sliding down the hill there could be competition for that title). I try really hard never to go there, sometimes I find them necessary though.
That’s a .8 % difference.
The article fails to say if this is over a year, quarter, month, week, day, hour or second. That makes the number meaningless.
If it’s over a year, it needs to be adjusted for inflation. In fact, if it’s less than a year, it needs to be adjusted for inflation.
So the article is useless.
I have a couple walmarts around me (one a super center). I would prefer shopping local but simply put, the local guys are way too expensive for my wallet these days and at walmart I can make my dollar stretch further. Its hit or miss as to who is shopping there at any given time, but overall, I am usually in and out and stocked for a few weeks for a couple hundred bucks.
The economy is supposed to be rebounding,growing,etc.....
Problem is that Walmart sales are declining. The question now becomes whether you believe Walmart or you believe what the govt. and talking heads are telling you. Walmart is a definitive barometer with hard numbers.
And our means dropped, because of all the cheap imports that were allowed by our government to flood the market.
Congress has a duty to regulate foreign trade specified in the Constitution. That they have deregulated foreign trade and allowed our industries to be decimated and our jobs shipped overseas is a crime.
-— “The economy is in collapse. That’s what’s going on.” ——
But we have a communist for a president, so all is well. Yippee!
>> “That’ why an actual decline is big news.” <<
.
Yep!
Many here do not understand that retail has automatic, unrepealable Baseline Budgeting, and with that constantly expanding baseline, any decline at all denotes a huge hidden free-fall.
2% miss on top line expectations for the largest retailer is HUGE.
Always the master of the understatement...
Thank you. I do try!
Yes, and the details are in their broken supply chain. Hearing endless stories to the effect they can’t keep their shelves stocked. My wife reports the same problem.
I really haven’t been able to find anything definitive on the “why” of their supply problem. Supposedly, just a few years ago they were credited with having the finest logistics system in the world. One “theory” is that new Federal Regs have created a huge shortage in truck drivers. But I’ve never found any news stories to confirm that.
Just don’t try to shop at any Wal-mart on a weekend, that’s when every crazy critter is there. If you can, go during the week, during the ol’ “primetime” tv hours or if you have a 24 hour one, in the very early morning.
Best time of the year to shop at a Wal-Mart is during the first half of the Superbowl. Virtually empty.
The article mirrors my thoughts when I heard this. Gold and silver are shooting up. Sign that folks are getting scared.
I usually stop on my way to work, at about 6:30AM. That’s the only time it is tolerable.
I have been finding, lately, that they are often out of stock on grocery items that I typically buy. I wonder if they’re having supply chain problems.
“Just don’t try to shop at any Wal-mart on a weekend, that’s when every crazy critter is there.”
You are so right. Saturday evening is an absolute freak show. There are people there missing a few genes.
“I suppose it’s possible actually shop there voluntarily.”
I make six figures and I shop there. There is a reason I am debt free. I don’t pay more than I have to and I watch my money. I can get just about everything at walmart. Some of the stores are indeed skanky but there is a realy nice one out in the country near Houston where I live, It is always CLEAN and stocked really nicely. I can get everything I need in one trip and generally pay less for than other places. There are some items I wont by from there like tools I get from my snapon dealer or go to Sears for Craftsman.
What they are missing in genes and teeth they make up for with tattoos...
Why bother...... just go to Walmart and buy.
In my particular area we’ve had two deep-discount grocery chains (Bottom Dollar and Aldi) enter the market in the past couple of years. I could easily see them together shaving substantially off grocery sales at Super Walmart.
Also there are quite a few Dollar General stores around, which are price competitive and a whole lot less of a hassle to shop.
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