General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsLeaked Internal Wal-Mart Email: "Where Are All The Customers? And Where's Their Money?" -Bloomberg
EDIT
"In case you haven't seen a sales report these days, February (month-to-date) sales are a total disaster," Jerry Murray, a Wal-Mart vice president who works on finance in the U.S. logistics division, said in a February 12 email to other executives, Bloomberg reported. "The worst start to a month I have seen in my (about) 7 years with the company."
The weak February sales start came after a disappointing January, according to an email from Cameron Geiger, senior vice president of Wal-Mart U.S. Replenishment. Geiger's email was also quoted by Bloomberg. The replenishment department works on moving products from distribution centers to stores.
"Have you ever had one of those weeks where your best- prepared plans weren't good enough to accomplish everything you set out to do?" Geiger asked in a February 1 email to company executives. "Well, we just had one of those weeks here at Walmart U.S. Where are all the customers? And where's their money?"
Wal-Mart is scheduled to report fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday and has not pre-reported any sales figures. Analysts on average expect fourth-quarter sales at Walmart U.S. discount stores open at least a year to rise 1.7 percent, excluding gasoline sales, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
EDIT
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/15/us-walmart-shares-idUSBRE91E12R20130215
brentspeak
(18,290 posts)You can't expect your customers to have much money when you deprive them of their livelihoods.
DearHeart
(692 posts)Walmart never had lower prices than others. They would have low prices on a couple of things, just to get you into the damn store and everything else was just as expensive as anywhere else. Plus, when you went looking for the "sale" product, 9 times out of 10, they were out of stock! That place has sucked for years!!
hay rick
(7,636 posts)They are discovering that Wal-Mart prices lead to Wal-Mart wages. Of course, the Bloomberg article blames the return of the normal level of payroll taxes...
Initech
(100,099 posts)LiberalEsto
(22,845 posts)but don't tell anyone
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)that if the rest of us don't have money we can't buy their crap.
GP6971
(31,201 posts)None around here that I'm aware of.
I'm gradually getting my fairly new wife away from Walmart.......takes extra trips and time to mostly Target, but it's starting to pay off.
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)GP6971
(31,201 posts)bighart
(1,565 posts)"Entry-level hourly workers in Target stores earn roughly the same pay and have more difficulty qualifying for health care coverage than their peers at Wal-Mart. Both retailers oppose unions and have taken steps to prevent organizing efforts in stores. And both have outsourced jobs overseas to save costs."
"Yet the companies have much in common. The remarkable thing, said Charles Fishman, author of The Wal-Mart Effect, is that 80 percent of the stuff in Target and Wal-Mart is identical. The prices are often identical, too."
http://reclaimdemocracy.org/walmart-vs-target-redux-they-have-more-in-common-than-you-think/
southern_belle
(1,647 posts)To NOT shop at Wal-Mart and I'm loving it!
KoKo
(84,711 posts)and I don't go to WalMart...but mostly the mainstream Dept. Stores.
Seems folks are returning stuff at the check out and it's more browsers than buyers. Also more stores closing in our three major malls but with signs on window saying "COMING SOON..." but with only a few mentioning the Store Name that is REALLY coming soon while the rest just offer "hope" for coming soon.
Also we have a high number of "family owned" type of restaurants closing...while the "chain restaurants" have parking lots filled along with the Drive In Windows with cars smoking gas while they wait to get their order.
It's kind of wild out there and upsetting at the same time as to WHO SURVIVES and WHO GOES UNDER.
The Big Conglomerate Chains doing GREAT...but the Independent Owners going under.
But....it's been posted here that our Economy is finally Doing Good and Jobs are coming back.
GP6971
(31,201 posts)and the parking lot is never as full as in the past.....regardless of the day of the week. When we do go in, it is by no means crowed and checkout lines are fairly short.
IDemo
(16,926 posts)"where your best-prepared plans weren't good enough to accomplish everything you set out to do?"
I'm sure many have had weeks where eating and paying the rent were accomplishments that weren't both achievable.
krispos42
(49,445 posts)"How come our customers don't have any money? I don't understand!!!!"
This is a classic example of how, when everybody does what's in their individual best interest, they are in fact fucking themselves.
Individually, it's in the best interest of every company to pay as little as possible for labor so they can increase profit margins. Collectively, it's in the best interest of every company to pay as much as possible so they can have loads of customers with fat wallets.
annabanana
(52,791 posts)Rich & dumb. If they weren't rich they'd be dead.
RB TexLa
(17,003 posts)for you to save as much as you can.
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)If everyone were to do as you say then there would be no customers for your services unless you're in the food, water or shelter business.
RB TexLa
(17,003 posts)there are plenty of idiots to call customers for everyone.
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)If people did as you say they should then you would not have a job any more.
Neither would the great majority of people who currently have jobs, which would clearly effect your own job.
Essentially you have made the case that the economy depends on idiots.
Oh, and calling your customers idiots is hardly likely to endear you to them.
RB TexLa
(17,003 posts)Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)Why give advice that if everyone followed it would lead to your own unemployment?
Are you that altruistic, really?
I bet you are a big tipper when you go out to eat.
RB TexLa
(17,003 posts)Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)Why should they spend their money on your services?
Is what you do an absolute necessity, food, water, shelter?
RB TexLa
(17,003 posts)to justify having restaurant employees or owners as customers? 5? 10? 20? 30?
I decide who deserves to have my money, and I decided I do. Just as you decide who deserves to have yours.
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)RB TexLa
(17,003 posts)Feel free to just argue with yourself from here on.
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)Skip Intro
(19,768 posts)Is this a blowback against a giant corp, or a scary sign that the economic situation in the US is far worse than we know?
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)The 99% just isn't getting the money to spend.
[link:http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022365380|The Richest 1 Percent Have Captured 121 Percent Of Income Gains During The Recovery
]
kenny blankenship
(15,689 posts)that's what their own sales stats and research tells them. WMT's target demographic couldn't care less about them being a giant evil corp. That sort of thing matters to my middle class liberal neighbors who are trying to block a Walmart going in near us, because they worry it will trash their property values and probably push their favorite stores to the edge of survival and trash the local retail ecosystem.
If it's possible to see the month's sales stalling out in shitty territory already by the 12th, and it happens again in March, that would suggest times are getting tougher for a whole lot of people.
I am trying to find a source for what I said. So far what I get are a bunch of stories from 2011 about the WMT CEO Mike Duke complaining that his customers are "broke" at the end of every month -their sales go flat at month's end- and that they appear to be running out of money sooner. You know. Incrementally.
http://money.cnn.com/2011/04/27/news/companies/walmart_ceo_consumers_under_pressure/index.htm
hatrack
(59,592 posts).
alarimer
(16,245 posts)Most people's paychecks took a substantial hit in January from the return of the payroll tax to normal. Notice in the fiscal cliff negotiations there was never any discussions about cutting taxes for the 97%, only about not raising them on the top.
So most people lost money in January. But also the bills are coming due from Christmas and so they're paying those down.
I would guess February might be a slow month anyway.
Permanut
(5,625 posts)I recommend a nice cruise in the Gulf. Carnival Lines, something like that.
hatrack
(59,592 posts)Hah!