Walmart Has To Overcome A Scary Reality About Its Customers

[marmar]

(Business Insider) Today, Walmart reported weak results in the third quarter.

Sales were up 1.3 percent, compared with the 2.7 percent that analysts expected. Walmart noted higher gas prices — because customers are paying more for fuel, they're not going on as many shopping trips.

But Walmart is facing a scary reality: the ailing finances of its core customers, said Brian Sozzi, chief equities analyst at NBG Productions.

"I don’t believe it’s a market share loss issue, rather the fundamental health of this particular customer group is concerning," Sozzi said. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-customers-struggling-2012-11#ixzz2CJTIkLlo

[Stinky The Clown]

1. Few have done more to diminish the American worker than WalMart

[KansDem]

2. And now they are reaping what they have sown

One might say something about "poetic justice" but it's the kind of poem we don't want to hear...

[Ikonoklast]

18. They ignored what Henry Ford figured out nearly 100 years ago.

And now other low-end retailers are taking market share from them.

[Raine]

31. Yup, people who can no longer afford Walmart are most likely going to the dollar stores. nt

[mercuryblues]

3. maybe

enough people are boycotting them because of their labor policies. Perhaps a combination of the 2?

http://blogs.barrons.com/stockstowatchtoday/2012/11/15/tale-of-two-third-quarters-wal-mart-slumps-as-target-gains/


Shares of Wal-Mart (WMT) were falling nearly 4% today, while rival Target (TGT) pushed ahead more than 1% in recent trading on their respective fiscal third-quarter earnings reports.
<snip>

Elsewhere, Target reported earnings of $637 million, or 96 cents a share, up from 82 cents a year earlier. Excluding one-time items EPS rose to 90 cents; in August the company forecasted earnings of 83 cents to 93 cents. Revenue grew 3.2% to $16.93 billion.

For the current quarter, Target said it expects to earn between $1.64 and $1.74 a share, ahead of the $1.51 a share analysts were expecting.

[Auggie]

4. "They don’t need uncertainty over a tax increase.” FUCK YOU MIKE DUKE ...

you bullshit artist.

[corkhead]

14. I'm surprised he didn't say it was because the tax rate on their customer's dividends is too high

[DJ13]

5. Walmart CEO Mike Duke : customers are among those most affected by concerns about the fiscal cliff.

I know in my lower middle class household taxes possibly going up on millionaires like Mike Duke keeps me from shopping as much as I would like.

[BlueStreak]

6. That's a rationalization. They ARE losing market share

to companies that are out-Wal*Marting Wal*Mart. Namely, Family Dollar, Dollar General, and Dollar Tree.

That's a fact. All three of those bottom feeders have been growing at a much higher rate than Wal*Mart. They put the essential merchandise in a "small box" store more conveniently located in more low income neighborhoods. THAT is why the people with the least money aren't making the 7 mile trip to Wal*Mart.

[dragonlady]

11. I think you have something there

While registering voters in "urban" areas this year, we spent much time outside Family Dollar stores because that's where there seemed to be a lot of traffic (along with the few grocery stores that let us be there).

[BlueStreak]

20. Most people haven't taken notice of this big trend

I can't say that it bodes well for us as an economy that can lift people up. Nonetheless, there is a huge retailing sector BELOW Wal*Mart. And this isn't really new. Family Dollar has been in business for 50 years or so, but all three of these companies had explosive growth since 2008.

Family Dollar, in particular, is on the second wave of that post-2008 growth. They initially opened up a lot of really crappy stores, just to get planted in various neighborhoods. Now they are going back and upgrading their locations or fixing up the building to make them a lot more appealing.

Dollar General went bankrupt and was bought out by KKR, and is still mostly held by KKR, I believe, but is now making money. This once again demonstrates the difference between a regular private equity form like KKR and the vulture capital firms like Bain. KKR wants to turn companies around. Bain wants to "harvest" companies to death.

[HiPointDem]

24. you mean these guys?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kohlberg_Kravis_Roberts

no difference between them & bain.

[BlueStreak]

27. Actually I think there is a big difference

Bain was mostly just about "harvesting" companies, and KKR is mostly about turning failing companies around so that they can sell them back as publicly traded companies at a profit. Bain didn't really care whether the companies survived because they structured deal that guaranteed they made money either way.

I'm not saying they are polar opposites, and there is certainly some overlap. I'm not saying KKR are saints. But I really think a "turnaround" company is different from a "vulture capital" company.

[HiPointDem]

28. bain has done turnarounds and kkr has done vulture. what they do depends on

what's the best bet at the time under the prevailing circumstances.

http://www.preqin.com/item/kkr-turns-vulture-investor-as-distressed-debt-cheaper-than-lbos/101/1593

http://exploreclarion.com/2012/08/02/bain-and-kkr-once-ruled-sealy-and-owens-in-clarion-county/

Not to mention they do deals together & collude with each other to fix prices.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/04/09/us-kkr-bain-idUSTRE63816Y20100409

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-10/investors-claim-kkr-told-equity-firms-not-to-bid-for-hca.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/12/bain-capital-club-deals-lawsuit_n_1877591.html

[BlueStreak]

29. I think if you dig into their complete histories you will find something like

KKR: 75% turnarounds, 20% bankruptcies, 5% venture

Bain: 60% bankruptcies or massive offshoring, 25% turnarounds, 15% venture.

[GreenStormCloud]

30. My little town has two dollar stores, nearest WM is ten miles. N/T

[ejpoeta]

7. i know i personally avoid walmart whenever possible.

last night was the first time i had been in a walmart in some time

[Earth_First]

8. Wal Mart free since 2004! n/t

[JanMichael]

21. We (wife and I) have never been in one together

married in 2003; I think we are both over a decade Walmart Free...will NEVER step foot in one.

[Generic Other]

9. Vast numbers of us have never been in one

and never plan to go.

[joeunderdog]

10. Their own employees represent the "particular customer group"

that can't buy shit. Get a clue, Fascists.

[hedgehog]

12. Henry Ford paid his workers enough that they could afford to buy the cars they made!

Now, it is my personal opinion that he had to raise wages to prevent employee turn-over - working the assembly lines was so mind-numbingly soul killing that a lot of guys drank their first week's wages and didn't come back the next Monday! still, whatever the motivation, the result was that the workers could afford to buy cars!

[kydo]

13. walmart free since 2001

the last thing I bought from there was a tv with the bush tax cut at the end of 2001. Since then I have set foot three times into those stores. I do non profit work for high school marching bands, so twice I was there to take pictures for jazz band preformances and once to take pictures of the band getting a donation check. I shop local stores and costco mostly.

Walmart always smells like old popcorn.

[Liberalynn]

15. Welcome to the reality of the world you helped create

Walmart CEO assholes.

[Tsiyu]

16. It's amazing that they play this one-sided game

so clueless to the eventual outcome.

If you don't pay your own employees enough to even afford the basics of life, because none of the other employers are paying enough to afford the basics of life, it's inevitable that these underpaid employed people will fall further and further behind, eventually becoming unable to purchase anything extra.

And Wally World is all about the extra excess SHITE made cheap in China and sold in large enough quantities to make a profit. Without those sales, they are nothing.

They want to hold on to the ball, never let the other side play with it, and then scratch their heads in wonderment when there's no game left.

[xchrom]

17. Paging Mr Duke - please proceed to the nearest White Clue Phone

For an Urgent Message.

[pa28]

19. They've are slowly killing the communities they operate in.

That's the problem.

[jtuck004]

22. No they aren't. The communities are killing themselves by bringing Walmart the $ to pay for it.

Not to argue, but we haven't figured out yet how to compete with other countries when we actually have to work for a living and not have the upper hand because we bombed them back into the stone age. Letting others sacrifice for us, tens of millions of people have submitted to voluntary servitude, letting the governments and the wealthy create a life where they work to feed the accounts of the rich and greedy.

On further thought - I hear one of the big fish places is lowering hours so they don't have to pay health care. So their customers could care less about whether that singe guy with the kid serving them gets health care, as long as their lobster is $2 cheaper.

The fish store ain't the problem.

As bad as Walmart is, you could level every one of them tomorrow the people in the communities would just rebuild it and shop there.

Walmart is the least of our worries.

""There was two kind of slaves. There was the house negro and the field negro. The house negro, they lived in the house, with master. They dressed pretty good. They ate good, cause they ate his food, what he left.They lived in the attic or the basement, but still they lived near their master, and they loved their master, more than their master loved himself. They would give their life to save their masters house quicker than their master would. The house negro, if the master said "we got a good house here" the house negro say "yeah, we got a good house here". Whenever the master would said we, he'd say we. That's how you can tell a house negro. If the master's house caught on fire, the house negro would fight harder to put the blaze out than the master would. If the
master got sick, the house negro would say "What's the matter, boss, we sick?" We sick! He identified himself with his master, more than the master identified with himself. And if you came to the house negro and said "Let's run away, Let's escape, Let's separate" the house negro would look at you and say "Man, you crazy. What you mean separate? Where is there a better house than this? Where can I wear better clothes than this? Where can I eat better food than this?" There was that house negro. In those days, he was called a house nigger. And that's what we call him today, because we still got some house niggers runnin around here.

http://www.zimbio.com/Black+History+Month/articles/265/Malcolm+X+House+Negro+vs+Field+Negro

[HereSince1628]

23. That has such a Keynesian sound to it that I expect the supply-siders to ignore it completely

[xxqqqzme]

25. Years ago I adopted my

personal mantra for malwart. Now whenever anyone mentions walmart or talks about shopping there, my mind says 'Everytime you shop at walmart another American loses his job'. I don't even think it anymore. It just pops up and runs.

[southernyankeebelle]

26. Maybe WalMart should listen to the Nuns on the bus. They could give them a big lesson.

You can't keep being greedy and expect your customer to keep coming back. I know when I buy items I see the prices there go up but they are making the items smaller. Do these people think we are stupid.

[GreenStormCloud]

32. WM's prescription drug plan is working great for my wife and I.

Hate us for going to WM if you want to, but we have to take pills everyday. Yesterday I picked up three of my perscriptions at a cost of $3. That is a big deal for us.

Our granddaughter has come to live with us with her baby. She paid $34.00 for a perscription at Walgreen's. I checked with WM and showed her how to get the same thing for $9. Since she is a single mother, that makes a difference.

It is nice that many of you are rich enough to pay upscale prices, but for lots of us cheap prices are very important.

[mick063]

33. They are doing what our government fails to do.

I am glad that Walmart exerts pressure on the drug makers to lower prices.


It compensates for the failings of our government to intervene on the fleecing of our sick and elderly.

Try writing to the drug manufacturer about the costs. Many know they charge too much and have programs in place to sell at a lower cost.