Posted on 08/16/2013 10:01:37 AM PDT by xzins
Wal-Mart issued weak earnings news Thursday, but the company isn't doing anything wrong, says Howard Davidowitz, chairman of retail consultant Davidowitz & Associates. It's merely suffering from a weak economy.
"Wal-Mart is a terrific operator," Davidowitz tells Yahoo. "They didn't suddenly become stupid. ... The economy is in a state of collapse. That's what's going on."
The world's biggest retailer cut its full-year profit forecast after second-quarter profit came in below analysts' expectations.
The employment situation illustrates the weakness of the U.S. economy. Of the new jobs generated this year, 75 percent are low-wage, part-time, Davidowitz explains.
Real unemployment, including those who have stopped looking for work and are working fewer hours than they want, is 14 percent, he adds.
"Business is bad in America," Davidowitz notes. "Look at our GDP [gross domestic product] growth. We're growing at 1.5 percent. That means we can't produce jobs."
The economy expanded at an average rate of 1.4 percent in the first and second quarters.
"I don't think we're in a recession right now, but I think there's a 50 percent chance we'll be in a recession next year," Davidowitz predicts.
Meanwhile, government debt has exploded to $17 trillion, he notes. "We've spent all the money, we've borrowed all the money and we're in the tank."
(Excerpt) Read more at moneynews.com ...
Looks like we need:
30 million hungry, unemployed new ‘immigrants’; a massive new layer of federal bureaucracy to provide ‘free’ healthcare, enforced by the IRS; and, a mandate from the UN to disarm the American people.
Just for starters.
Hope and change, 2013.
over the years I've seen registers spread out (less cashiers), aisles widened but most interesting is the entire floor had new tile laid down a few months ago.
SOME products change or disappear.
We used to get corned beef from Argentina ... no more ... now it's Hormel's from .. I forget.
The Argentinian CB was supurb. The replacement is meh.
Everytune MSM economic talking heads laud GDP increases of less then 3 percent and claim the economy is recovering I want to throw something at the TV. US population grows 3 percent a year, if GDP growth is less then that, the population increases will eventually over run the GDP increases. Now the two party system wants to grant Amnesty for illegals!!! and more H-1B workers!!! The only people making money is the businessmen, everyone else is being dumped on!!!
Or Hereford, which is Brazilian:
It's chunky, more like roast beef texture. It can be ordered at Amazon, but it is criminally priced there. You can order it for a much better price here. And they used to have a flat $10 FedEx charge for $50 or more orders.
http://www.myfilipinogrocery.com/filipino-canned-goods/55-ox-palm-corned-beef-with-juice.html
I haven't ordered in while since I found it locally in a Vietnamese store in Louisville.
And there is apparently a chess match taking place between Bernanke and Obama.
Bernanke's boys appear to be running a whispering campaign to break a stock market bubble and Obama doesn't seem to like it, so he's telegraphing replacing Bernanke.
One report on Obama say: "At his news conference last week, Obama said he is looking for a Fed chair who can keep inflation in check and promote the economic conditions for full employment."
In other words, he wants to keep up the QE and he wants a part-time economy to mimic real employment.
They make demands re prices, and if they don't meet the price they are out.
That is why many say their produce, for one example, is sub par.
I know a guy that was a broker for a specific produce item, and he said they dictated the price so low they could barely make a profit.
And I am always astounded when I go in a local Walmart and on the way to the garden section, see displays in the middle of the isles with produce in bins.
It is ALWAYS priced way above what you can purchase it for in other stores in the area [With the exception of Safeway which uses the same tactic Walmart does of using big letters on EVERY price card that says LOW PRICE. LOL I think their LIS (low information shoppers) buy the stuff because they believe the lie]
And it is no better than what you can get at the discount grocery stores for half price or even less sometimes.
...or NEVER show up. However, if you go to their website there are many more items that are not in all (if any) stores. With "Site to Store" they've started to seem like Amazon except you pick it up at the store and avoid shippping costs.
Walmart is a good one to watch for indications of where the economy is going.
This report is not good.
A while back, I bought McAfee software from them that I'd found the price for on the internet. The package they had on the shelf at the store was higher priced. They will match the price of carrots at Krogers, but they won't match their own web price.
So, I had to order it from them online while at the store. (This is a true story.) Then they had to get authorization from some headquarters to "consider" their package at the store to be the package that would be shipped to them to give to me. And then I had to sign for an "online" package pickup. And then they gave me the price on the internet.
For the box that was on their shelf.
Efficiency. LOL.
Guess they’re still tryin’ to figure out how to play the mail order game.
We just recently bought two new phones. The protective cases for them cost us $30.00 on the site-to-store, but were priced at $37 or more, in the actual store. One of the cases was able to be picked up the same day I ordered it, the other had to be shipped (free).
“The economy is in a state of collapse.”
Thank you, Captain Obvious! I thought the foreclosures and shuttered storefronts were a sign of prosperity. As for this guy not thinking we’re in a recession, he needs to get out more. If there is a silver lining, it is the number of Obama voters that have gotten their just desserts...
When Captain Obvious is cited, a picture is required.
Shame on you. :>)
That would make sense for shipped items, but there are items I can order on line and have waiting at the store within the hour, that means it was already in the store inventory, they certainly couldn't have pulled it from the dist. center that fast.
Numerous acquaintances of mine are Walmart employees, and from what I’m told there is a distinct possibility that Walmart IS getting stupid.
Two frequent complaints:
The self-check machines and the shortage of cashiers. From the purchaser’s pov, these are one issue. Some folks don’t want to learn how to self-check, and those who do are discovering unanticipated difficulties — where to put the item, when to remove it from the scale, how to pay (two forms of payment ok? gift cards ok? sometimes not!) These machines don’t come with manuals and it’s annoying to be held up by technical wrinkles, so people head for the human cashier’s line and that’s often very slow because Walmart doesn’t want enough cashiers, it wants shoppers to use machines. Associates are exhorted to urge customers to try self-check (and open credit accounts, and buy a poinsettia for some charity, and purchase the warranty...)
Other thing: Associates are now confronted with the Almighty Computer planning their work schedules and stations, and the CSM’s (floor managers) can’t make the real time, real situation decisions they used to make; the cashier goes to the register the Computer demands, not where the CSM knows the cashier is needed. CSM’s no longer have much discretion to overrule the Computer. Meanwhile newer associates aren’t being given the opportunities to learn new skills (customer service, specialized departments) because the Computer and the new regulations just don’t allow for such flexibility. Sam Walton must be spinning in his crypt at the sclerosis of his business.
It used to be responsive, now it’s scripted. It used to be human, now it’s robotic. And shoppers have noticed.
Don’t even get me started on their slipshod asset protection policy and the near extinction of the greeters. Or the absolute phobia Walmart exhibits about part-time workers working anywhere close to the fateful 40-hours-a-week. Or the posted “blacklist” of employees who have worked only minutes over their assigned time. Oh the shame!
Like many another form of human organization, the business has a life span and Walmart is no spring chicken these days.
I wish I knew how to post one; I like the guy falling with Captain Obvious flying next to him telling him he’s falling to his death. The falling guys say, “Thanks”.
and they sell ammo....one lady was there talking with the guy about getting a shotgun for protection...
I tell ya, people are starting to wake up...
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