Wal-Mart’s Worst Stock Crash In 27 Years Is Another Sign That The Economy Is Rapidly Falling Apart

TEC ^ | 10/18/2015 | Michael Snyder

[luvbach1]

Your 99c store has a wider selection than many. I’ve found that the produce had better be eaten quickly because most of its shelf life is gone once the 99c store gets it. But I shop there too and it’s a good place if you know your prices.

[Chickensoup]

The government is looking at paid off houses as revenue source. The ACA is designed to access it.

[doug from upland]

Yes, not much shelf life, so only buy what you can eat in the next couple days.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Or it’s a sign that they can’t pay for their wage hikes.

[familyop]

"Please note that it is rare to find a traditional "home ec" course being taught in the High Schools, heaven forbid a child learn from their mother or grandmother at this point how to sew a garment."

Don't forget demoralizing propaganda and county zoning laws against manufacturing. ;-)

Open source designs for small scale, automated spinning machines are just ahead. It's already begun with cheap, homebuilt knitting machines, where machine needles are the highest priced parts by far (computers, for example, being cheap). Small tool manufacturers might make a killing on needles soon (partial heat treating, no big deal for machinists).

In automotive, open source designs of several micro-manufacturers have been approved by governments. Sadly, the one in the U.S. (WikiSpeed) chose typically expensive aluminum rails for a successful crash test instead of steel tubing for a chassis. Should be corrected soon. Manufacturers have already shown interest and do offer drive trains.

Budding, degreed political class manufacturers should also remember that they need non-degreed, self-made workers for new operations (yes, mechanically inclined children of rednecks and the like). I've seen too many interns without aptitudes for hands-on work failing at simple tasks and design trials (e.g., using weak structurals in machine designs). Try putting those to the test, who've built and repaired many things at home for years.

The point is to never give up. What is guaranteed, is that many service jobs now supported by a regime of government debt will go away, and probably rather suddenly--services that work against any thriving economy.

[familyop]

Kroger becomes the nation's largest retailer to offer this benefit (sex change operations)
http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/morning_call/2015/10/kroger-becomes-the-nations-largest-retailer-to.html

[familyop]

The knowledge for designing and drafting patterns is being shared by people (mostly women) through the Internet and has already been collected by some on computer media and paper. That knowledge will enable a much more distributed (small shop) industry for finished clothing manufacturing, but we also need to finish open source (licensed for free distribution, no patents) designs for small scale (but scalable) material manufacturing equipment to keep the global outfits from pricing supplies too high for small buyers.

You see, with long-distance, complicated transportation being too expensive in the near future for the current regime (global firms), a more distributed, community-based economy can and probably will happen.

[familyop]

"It has been long reported that the 65+ demographic is the wealthiest group in the country. And it makes sense. These people have both pensions, 401Ks and Social Security. They have accumulated wealth over the years."

Yes. As linked from Drudge,...

"PLAYBOY mansion 'house of horrors'...

Damp rooms, hospital food, more nurses than bunny girls..."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3277784/Model-describes-Playboy-Mansion-s-damp-rooms-hospital-food-Hugh-Hefner-frail-relies-nurses-babes.html

;-)

[packrat35]

Wal-Mart rarely has more than 4 registers open for at least the past 10 years. It is the MAIN reason I rarely go there.

They are penny wise and pound foolish. Their cheapskate policies are costing them money.

[Rodamala]

Can some single, white, lovely, young, unattached, FReepette, let’s say around 30 years-old, contact me about a prospective “business venture”? You knit me socks, and I will help mend the fences on our farm for the sheep pasture where you get the wool to make my socks.

Send a photo of your gun, truck, and bass boat via PM.

Thanks in advance,
Rodamala

[Rodamala]

one of my local Walmart’s has those self-checkout lanes. I refuse to use those things.

[familyop]

"If textiles is going to come back, it will have to employ people that are already here picking our fruit and vegetables... for slave wages."

That reminds me, that many of the open source equipment designs being built and tested are for equipment controlled by cheap computers (some of which are also from open source designs). The next step, of course, is automated loading of materials for parts and products (what propagandists call "robotic").

And yes, there are also many notable benefactors.

All Our Patent Are Belong To You Elon Musk, CEO June 12, 2014
http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/all-our-patent-are-belong-you

Others have been funding some of the development efforts (including open source design efforts for machines to be used in manufacturing). A much more distributed economy with open source designs would also be much more durable and resilient. If a large, natural disaster were to punch a hole in the economy somewhere, many other communities would be operable and available to assist.

There is more than enough water, air and earth for building upward and onward. There's no real scarcity. Scarcity is artificial and has only been manufactured by some thus far.

[packrat35]

I hate self checkout. They always screw up and I have to wait. I quit using them.

[catnipman]

Actually, the low inventory is probably deliberate. Home Depot does the same thing, and it’s one of the reasons why I avoid that place whenever I can as well: fewer different items for sale and empty shelves.

Low inventory is one of those business school shibboleths all good MBA bean counters learn, namely the concept of “velocity”, that is, how long goods sit on the shelves incurring inventory “costs”. You can improve “velocity” by turning good over quickly, OR you can improve it by not putting goods on the shelf in the first place. Guess which one is easiest to pull off? Yep, no goods on shelves. Of course, no goods equals no sales, but that doesn’t matter to bean counters, just so long as they get that “velocity” number improved. So what if customers give up in disgust shopping in your empty-shelf store. After all, if they can reduce “velocity”, the company MUST be doing good, right?

[familyop]

"Can some single, white, lovely, young, unattached, FReepette, let’s say around 30 years-old, contact me about a prospective “business venture”? You knit me socks, and I will help mend the fences on our farm for the sheep pasture where you get the wool to make my socks.

Send a photo of your gun, truck, and bass boat via PM.

Thanks in advance,
Rodamala"

LOL! An immigrant somewhere from a "developing" country or a homeless, young American woman might take you up on that offer.

Computerized knitting machines can be built at home. Looking for any news now on small scale spinning equipment (the most urgent problem to solve for community-based textiles). Fence posts can be planted with homebuilt augers (corner braces, line posts) or hydraulics (t-posts). There's still more than enough to be done on a farm, though (all DIY maintenance for chances of success). A friend of mine already has agreements for $3.10 a pound for this season's "grass-fed" beef on the hoof (what a deal, thanks to generous city slickers).

[ladyjane]

I read the other day that 40% of the people in this country have saved zero for retirement. Another 40% have saved less than $100,000.

With all the opportunity to save with 401Ks, 403Bs, IRAs, and pension plans, how can that be?

[Rodamala]

I have been advised that I need to agree to host a few Syrian Refugees.

The "problem" is... well, judge for yourself:

Hint: the first deviation from the spec is that none of these... young ladies own a bass boat one. I bet that they can make a sweet "clock" though.

[Rockingham]

Supposedly, Wal-Mart is now adding more cashiers and aims at shorter customer checkout lines. Unfortunately, Wal-Mart is now combatting the reputation for long lines and other lapses in service and customer experience that it earned through ill-chosen economies.

Similarly, one of my brothers works in the back office operation of a large financial services company. Over the years, offshoring and cutbacks in personnel have led to a gradual deterioration in the quality of customer service.

As with Wal-Mart, the de facto management strategy my brother sees with his employer is to cut and pare away personnel and costs until service begins to break down, then add back enough to remedy the breakdown.

Such an approach though risks long-term damage to a company's reputation and can cause workforce quality issues. When a wave of new people have to be hired on a rush basis, employee standards tend to be relaxed, leading to new employees who are slow to learn and adapt and troublesome in their conduct.

In addition, management that is mostly intent on cost-cutting tends to miss both new opportunities for growth and the rise of competitive dangers. Moreover, the potential for useful managerial innovations is often missed in the constant scramble for squeezing every possible nickel and dime of costs out of operations.

In effect, the constant corporate struggle to run more cheaply sabotages the prospects for growth through new markets and improvements in operations and service to customers. When stock analysts and investors realize that has occurred, they tend to back away from such a company, realizing that it has abandoned the effort to excel in favor of cost-cutting. Hence Wal-Mart's stock price tumble.

[cva66snipe]

LOL I guess so. It’s sad though. Sam Walton’s stores under his watch were smaller in square ft yet had more selection and items were usually either on the shelves or in the stockroom. About two years ago my local Walmart was out of 10W30 motor oil for several weeks. All brands. Walmart staying on it’s current course will be the next Kmart within a decade. Someone will see their corporate stupidity as an opportunity.

[cva66snipe]

I gave up on Walmart’s ammo 8 years ago. Even if availability issues were resolved completely I don’t think they would carry much again.