Wal-Mart Misses Profit Estimates, Cuts Forecast
August 14th, 2007Joe and Jane Six Pack can’t refinance now. The real estate ATM is closed.
Via: Bloomberg:
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, said second-quarter profit rose less than analysts anticipated and lowered its earnings forecast after the company cut prices on thousands of back-to-school items.
…
Price cuts, markdowns to clear out unsold goods, and the mix of merchandise contributed to the contraction, Chief Financial Officer Tom Schoewe said during the company’s recorded earnings call.
“U.S. consumers continue to be under difficult pressure economically,” Scott said on the call. “It is no secret that many customers are running out of money toward the end of the month.”
Higher gasoline prices, slowing home sales and rising mortgage rates have curtailed discretionary purchases. Consumer spending, which makes up about 70 percent of the economy, slowed to a 1.3 percent annual growth rate in the second quarter, the weakest since 2005.
You know it’s bad when the Pres. of WalMart says his customers can’t afford to shop at the end of the month. He also called it, “payroll spending”, another phrase for living paycheck to paycheck. They estimate 141 million folks shop at WalMart & Sams Club. Not all of them are in trouble, some just like to shop cheap, but I bet most of that number are living on the edge.
And yet, we are told the economy is thriving.
Wow, and gee -williker’s, d’ya think? After driving Mom and Pop stores across America into the ground with their “loss leader cheap goods strategy,” Walmart might be feeling some pain?
Deservedly so.
Hello Walmart. Thank you for supporting the shipping off shore of the U.S. manufacturing base. Thank you for selling Chinese manufactured goods so cheaply that we were seduced by your big bad box stores. What a dish of shit.
I still remember that when the little tiny Walmart first opened in our little town in the US of A, Walmart claimed that all products sold were “made in USA.” Now about 60% is from China.
I haven’t been inside a Walmart except to buy prescriptions for Mom in the last three years.
But my girlfriends, caregivers, and whoever I know needs to go there – not only because it is the only place left in America to shop – but now because they can’t afford to, or can’t find what they need anywhere else!
What a crock of SHIT Walmart has manifested in this world.
Imagine a world where one SAVES the money to buy what one really NEEDS to improve their life, a house, or whatever what one wants – and then buys it – versus the BIG BOX mentality of Walmart, where you just buy shit because Walmart tells you it is inexpensive (cheap), and so you you should buy it just because it is CHEAP??? And then put that cheap crap on your credit card.
Walmart is a racket. Haven’t I said this before?
Imagine American’s saving money!! This will come with a great deal of pain, especially when banks are going to go into failure re subprime.
A world without Walmart. What a wonderful thought.
Niche market stores may be born again.
While I agree that Wal-Mart is pretty awful from a number of standpoints, there was often a reason why small-town America was not loyal to the “mom and pop” stores.
Small-town America has it’s own rigid little caste system which, in actual practice, means that all the judicial, social, and economic modes of exploitation are employed by local elites (often business owners) to screw over everyone else. Not all of them, of course–but far too many.
To many people in small-town America, the advent of Wal-Mart was greeted with a certain satisfaction. (“Thank God I don’t have to do business with that dick on the corner any more.”)
If I went into details on this, this post would turn into a novel.
I think that loyalty to “mom and pop” operations might have won the day against Wal-Mart–if small town elites had not functioned (as they still do) quite so much like mini-Mafias, intent on maintaining almost feudal positions of privilege for themselves.
There was a time that signs used to hang all about the store celebrating X number of American jobs created or some such. Ironic that I haven’t seen them in ages.
Wal-Mart actually had to bail out of Germany because, can you believe this, tougher local competition from Big-Box stores! And since I recall Germany having these stores long before I saw them in the States I can only assume they saw WallyWorld coming a mile off.
The road does travel both ways.