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 ...
payroll taxes = SS and MEDICARE
Obama would be able to fix this, but he’s busy with golf lessons.
Walmarts’s? The frozen pizzas or the refrigerated ones?
Yep, divisions set their plans up based upon these predictions. Division level buyers prepare, and local level management all schedule their labor based upon this as well. It has huge implications for being this far off.
I’m in Retail, too - and our sales have been slower this month, but we’ve had some pretty horrific weather this winter, which is part of it. Oh, and people are losong jobs, losing homes and they’re broke.
As for Wal-Mart, I blame myself. I haven’t been to Wal-Mart in a month. Because...wait for it...
I’M BROKE!
I agree about the quality of their produce. Plus I spend too much money when I shop at WM. Having so much under one roof makes it hard to stick to buying just the basic food items.
Spent some years in the biz and every month, every quarter, the general reaction out there at store level was “whoever made the sales projections must have been smoking crack!”
how unexpected!
I am sure Obama will get right on this! (right after he gets back from his latest vacation and golfing trip)
The produce at Walmart is often rotten or pretty close to it. I do some of my grocery shopping there and some at Target. Kroger can be overpriced...some items cost more than twice what they would elsewhere, so I buy only certain things from them. Boy, do I miss Harris Teeter.
The other day, I stopped at Walmart to pick up some hair color because Target was out. Walmart had the color I wanted, but I didn’t get it because the boxes were dented, beat-up, ragged, and some were half-opened.
The cosmetic section was in a similar condition. Nail polish bottles and lipsticks had been opened and the products smeared all over the fixtures.
they just built a new one by me so I stopped in to purchase some ammo,shelves empty, went to garden section to purchase holder for garden hose, nobody could find any in the whole store. Left and went to ace hardware to get hose hanger went home.
I bet Walmart sales have dropped because the roaring economy has sent everyone over to Bloomingdale’s,dahling!
Thanks.
Thanks for the info.
Okay, thanks for the information.
LOL!! That's actually a really good, indisputable point.
The grocery chain I used to work for calculated their labor by “sales per man hour” and the more successful your store was somehow the less labor you got the next year...
I went in a few days ago and they were out of everything except shotgun shells. The weird this is they got in one ammo can of .223,
which was snatched up instantly, of course. Considering they didn't even have a 50 round carton of the stuff, it seemed strange.
Refrigerated. They have three or four kinds and I think three sizes. I think the prices range from like five bucks to maybe ten bucks.
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