Walmart's World: Walmart's revenue is more than the GDP of most countries on earth!

Chartr ^ | 11/19/2023

[SeekAndFind]

Walmart’s world

We know you know Walmart is big, but it’s hard to overstate just how big America’s largest retailer actually is. In addition to selling the most stuff and employing the most people of any private employer, Walmart's physical footprint is unmatched, with enough floor space in stores in the US alone to fit some 12,500 football fields.

On the topic of employment, Walmart’s roster is nothing short of an army, employing approximately 1.6 million “associates” just in the US — more than the 1.4 million people that call Hawaii home — enough to make it the 41st most-populous state in the country.

Ka-ching In its most recent fiscal year, Walmart sold $606 billion worth of stuff, which is a number so big it’s almost meaningless on its own. $606 billion is more than the annual output of most countries on Earth. Not some countries, most countries. Indeed, were it a sovereign nation, Walmart’s revenue would be enough to rank around 27th in the world, more than the GDP of Sweden, Singapore, New Zealand and Norway (with all of its oil riches). That shakes out to around $69m an hour, and it means that since you started reading this newsletter (which we’re assuming was about a minute ago if you haven’t skimmed too much), Walmart has sold ~$1.15m worth of merchandise. When Walmart coughs… The sheer size of Walmart, which also operates Sam’s Club, makes it a unique barometer of the American consumer. When Walmart execs talk about a trend, economists listen. That’s why the company's warning last week, in which CFO John Rainey forecast weaker spending going into the holiday season, was taken seriously. The fact that consumers continue to feel price sensitive, having endured inflation for much of the last 2 years, is perhaps no surprise. With more bargain-seeking shoppers walking its aisles than any other retailer, Walmart only gets to stay in business by being hyper-competitive on price. In fact, despite its gargantuan economies of scale, the retailer ekes out a surprisingly small sliver of profit on its sales, reporting just a 2.2% net profit margin so far this year.

Of course, there’s no need to get your violins out for Walmart shareholders any time soon, because when you sell as much Walmart does, even a 2.2% margin shakes out to a not-so-slim $10.6bn in profit — and that's just for the first 9 months of its latest fiscal year.

Amazon ran, so Walmart could walk One part of Walmart’s business that comes with tastier margins is its booming e-commerce division. As we charted earlier this year, Walmart's online business has been on fire, growing between 2019 and 2023 at a similar pace to that which e-commerce trailblazer Amazon achieved from 2007-2011. That opens up new opportunities for Walmart, like advertising. Indeed, in the coming years, Walmart execs expect selling advertising on Walmart.com, or collecting fees from merchants that use its online marketplace, to make much larger contributions to future profit growth than just selling more stuff. That its online presence is now a source of optimism is certainly ironic, having grappled with online retailers for much of the last two decades. Indeed, following fierce price wars between Amazon and Walmart, like the one on books in the early 2000s, many expected Jeff Bezos's monolith to eat Walmart's lunch.

Although Amazon’s meteoric rise — surpassing Walmart as the more valuable company back in 2015 — has been remarkable, Walmart's core business has held up just fine. Indeed, even with the sharp drop on Friday, Walmart’s share price remains near its all-time peak, up 63% over the last 5 years. Low prices, high costs Whether stifling Mom-and-Pop stores in small towns, being accused of the poor treatment of animals in its supply chain, or just its general treatment of its workforce, Walmart hasn't gotten to its place at the top of the food chain without racking up a long list of controversies. The company's high staff turnover rate has been a particular focus, as has the company's anti-union practices, which some say make Walmart among the nation's most aggressive anti-union organizations. Although it may feel like it's always been a permanent part of the American business landscape, Walmart is in some ways still young, having only been founded in 1962. It's also unique in that it remains majority-owned (~50%) by direct descendants of its founder, Sam Walton. The fortune has been passed down through the Walton generations — a family who won't be wanting for any material objects at the Thanksgiving table this year, with a collective net worth of some $200-250bn.

[ansel12]

Jim Robinson—”No f-bombs. No c-words, no sh-words, etc. Not even masked.”

[ansel12]

Jim Robinson—”No f-bombs. No c-words, no sh-words, etc. Not even masked.”

[nonliberal]

How many of Wal Mart’s full time employees are on welfare? Sorry, but Wal Mart should be taxed accordingly so the government can recoup that money that it pays out in benefits to Wal Mart employees. employees

[nonliberal]

Right. Wal Mart is incredibly vertically integrated.tegrated

[central_va]

F = Fudge.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Dad moved us to this backward redneck hillbilly burg back in 1956. First time I saw REAL POVERTY, and I thought we lived poor on the High Plains! The CHICKEN MEN had this area in an economic stranglehold paying only agricultural Starvation Wages. Everyone was too poor to go to where real jobs were.
Then Sam Walton bought up some bankrupt Ben Franklin stores and a slow change began when he offered better wages than the Chicken Men.

Now it is one of the best (Worst to all you outsiders) places to live in the USA. Great medical hospitals, great schools!

I always wanted to retire and return to my beloved 4-Corners of New Mexico. But they have fallen on hard times thanks to Obama and Biden. The old unoffical motto for Arkansas was “Thank Heavens for Mississippi!” as Miss kept Arkansas of the bottom of the “worst” lists.
Now the UN-official motto of Mississippi is “Thank Heavens for New Mexico!”

As for Arkansas, it is still dirt poor except for the NW Corner where Walmart HQ is!

[Gaffer]

Electric vehicles

[entropy12]

Those products are probably manufactured in Asia

[entropy12]

Goes to show you CEO types running corpirations are stupid.

[Graybeard58]

But they pay “associates” barely enough to live on.

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In my area W-M workers start at $18 per hour. How much do you propose unskilled workers be paid?

[Graybeard58]

How many of Wal Mart’s full time employees are on welfare?

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In my area W-M workers start at $18 per hour. How much do you propose unskilled workers be paid?

[minnesota_bound]

McDonald’s Fun Facts
https://spoonuniversity.com/place/crazy-facts-about-mcdonalds-you-will-not-believe
More People Eat at McDonald’s Each Day than the Entire Population of the UK

[nonliberal]

Enough so they aren’t on welfare. And if they are, the employer should be taxed to offset the cost. The real wages of the working man are declining significantly. I’m getting tired of these woke corporations artificially keeping wages low so their rich shareholders make money while the working man has to deal with the fallout.

[Graybeard58]

Enough so they aren’t on welfare. And if they are, the employer should be taxed to offset the cost. The real wages of the working man are declining significantly. I’m getting tired of these woke corporations artificially keeping wages low so their rich shareholders make money while the working man has to deal with the fallout.

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You are not “nonliberal”, you are the very definition of liberal.

[nonliberal]

I’m tired of paying welfare for people with full time jobs because their employers are cheapskates. Especially after Covid. cially