Posted on 02/15/2013 1:19:31 PM PST by mykroar
Shares of Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) fell 3 percent on Friday after Bloomberg quoted a mid-level executive's email as saying the world's largest retailer had the worst sales start to any month in seven years in February.
Wal-Mart executives blamed the poor sales performance on increased payroll taxes as well as delayed tax returns, Bloomberg said.
Higher payroll taxes this year are seen as a potential problem for Wal-Mart and other discount retailers that try to attract lower-income customers who have less disposable income.
"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."
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Looks like we’re in for another “Recovery Summer.”
Those must be tax hikes on the 1%. < eye roll>
I admit that when it comes to matters of economics, I am not your go-to girl, but I find it puzzling that sales for a particular month can be tabulated and analyzed when that month is just barely half over. Don’t they need to see the figures for the entire month?
The guy in the excerpt is just talking about “February month to date sales”.
Well, when their ammo cabinet is EMPTY, I’ll shop elsewhere.
HALF the reason I go to walmart is to get ammo along with my other stuff.
That is THE thing that makes them different from target etc.
They compare Jan 2013 to Jan 2012. And, Wal Mart has instant sales analysis, their inventory system is second to none on earth.
Most companies keep a day by day chart along with a cumulative month to date total. Plus they know what their daily average should be and can compare February to date’s average with that.
Usually they also compare their current February sales to this date figures with last years.
You do not wait until the month is complete to look at your sales. You keep track each day and use this to schedule advertising and sales (The one where you cut prices to try and drive up actual sales. That is confusing by using sales (as in running a sale) and sales (as in the amount you sold)in the same sentence.)
Indeed. To be followed by a “second-half story”. It could be a “Goldilocks economy” again.
I assume they have a lot of historical data to compare to,
and all they had to do was look at the first couple of weeks to say “oh... crap”.
And, this was supposedly a “leaked” memo, as well.
My best guess is that Walmart's sales have dropped because they ran out of guns and ammo. As far as I can tell, they are restocking very slowly, if at all.
If they had any ammo in stock maybe their sales would have been higher.
Anyone shopped there lately? WM groceries leave something to be desired. We don’t get fruits, meats etc there at all anymore. Looks awful. Our local Kroger is full all the time now while WM Grocery across the street has only a few in their parking lots. Used to be the opposite.
These aren't the tax hikes you're looking for...
We’re all 1-percenters now...
comprehensive close
4:00 PM ET 2/15/2013
$ 69.30 -1.52 (2.15%)
Their own pizzas are excellent IMO.
Enjoy it moron Obama voters! Reap what you sow.
As Rush has been harping on this week -
the 0bama voters believe that these consequences have nothing to do with 0bama’s policies and are something he has been fighting to fix since he was first elected.
If anything, to them, dire financial news just means that 0bama is needed more than ever.
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