The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
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    Wal-Mart sales down for 7th consecutive quarter.

    By cmaukonen on Tue, 02/22/2011 - 11:30pm |

    And if people are not shopping at Wal-Mart (and I know many are not shopping a KMart and Target here), then the economy is doing worse than Washington is saying by a long shot.

    CHICAGO (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT - News) failed to meet its promise of reigniting sales at its U.S. stores, a disappointment for a new leadership team charged with turning things around in the face of pressure from even cheaper discounters.

    The retailer reported its seventh consecutive quarterly decline in sales at U.S. stores open at least a year, posting a 1.8 percent drop that was much bigger than its worst forecast and showing how hard it is for a merchant that accounts for 10 percent of U.S. retail sales to overcome its own mistake

    Comments

     I understand that Family Dollar Stores are doing well and branching out into groceries..(.ahh, prosperity).


    by jollyroger on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 12:22am

    Back in the early 1990s, my then-employer hired a fellow from the Tom Powers (Thriving on Chaos) group to talk to our entire office, which was something over 100 people, very large for an architectural firm. The fellow's delivery struck me as very much like an evangelist preacher, but the basic message was that in difficult times, desirable clients keep buying quality while the bad clients constantly shift around looking for cheaper and cheaper alternatives. According to him, trying to market your services or products to people looking only for the lowest price was a mug's game. It would be cheaper in the long run to serve your current clients well, and get repeat business, rather than going out to find new clients who are just going to beat you down on price anyway.

    It has always seemed to me that WalMart had chosen the second strategy, and was beating all their suppliers down on price to serve people looking for the lowest cost. Now that WM can't continue it's rapid growth, and worn out its welcome in many quarters, competitors are finding ways to out-cheap WalMart.


    by Donal on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 8:13am

    Now this is getting scary.  With WalMart supplying all but small pockets of the US with foods and goods, it has probably attained "too big to fail" status itself, and it's profit margins are now a matter of national concern.


    by miguelitoh2o on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 2:03pm

    HA....Now all we have to do is wait for Geithner to decide that WalMart needs to be bailed out by the government or we will have another Great Depression.


    by cmaukonen on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 4:02pm

     The Waltons ('nite Jim Bob) are way ahead of you...I believe that Walmart applied to be a bank when they installed a certain amount of financial services (mostly check cashing and prepaid debit cards) in their inventory...I'm pretty sure I remember them being turned down, but that was probably just part of the shakedown...when come back, bring cash...


    by jollyroger on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 5:49pm

    Don't start crying for Wal-Mart yet:

    Wal-Mart earned $5.02 billion, or $1.41 per share, in the fourth quarter ended on January 31, up from $4.82 billion, or $1.26 per share, a year earlier.

    If you parse the lede sentence carefully ("The retailer reported its seventh consecutive quarterly decline in sales at U.S. stores open at least a year") you'll notice two caveats: "U.S." and "open at least a year" which explains the otherwise apparent contradiction.


    by Verified Atheist on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 4:11pm

    The last time I went to Wal-Mart, it became really obvious that they were remaking themselves to be more like Target. The logo was more intriguing, their DVD, video games, books and clothing sections were widened and there were more exotic tastes than just McDonald's in the food court. It'd be interested to see how Wal-Mart's sales compare to Target.


    by Orion on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 11:43pm

    From wiki-walmart:  In 2010 it was the world's largest public corporation by revenue, according to the Forbes Global 2000 for that year.  Walmart was ranked #1 with $408B in revenues in the Fortune 500 in 2010.  Target was ranked #33 with about $60B in revenue.


    by miguelitoh2o on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 12:54pm