Wal-Mart Declines After U.S. Sales Miss Retailer’s Forecast

[TomClash]

Source: Bloomberg

Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the largest retailer, fell the most in nine months in New York trading after posting a seventh straight sales decline at its U.S. stores, short of its own projections for the holiday period.

The shares fell as much as 4.4 percent after Wal-Mart said today that sales at U.S. stores open at least a year fell 1.8 percent in the quarter ended Jan. 28. Chief Executive Officer Mike Duke said in October that U.S. comparable sales would be “positive.”

Duke, 61, said Wal-Mart is “disappointed” by the results and that it will take time to revive Wal-Mart store sales in the U.S., which account for almost two-thirds of total revenue. The CEO put thousands of products back on shelves, offered $5 Barbie dolls to holiday shoppers, and began focusing on smaller stores to lure back U.S. consumers living paycheck to paycheck.

“There’s finally a sense of reality at Wal-Mart that the U.S. is going to take longer to turn around,” David Strasser, an analyst at Janney Montgomery Scott in New York, said today in an interview. “Some of the problems are self-inflicted. Their customer is still very much in a recession/depression.”

Read more: http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aPTSrLT8oDwY&pos=2

[ixion]

1. "Their customer is still very much in a recession/depression"

Anyone who doesn't happen to be a Wall St. shark, career thief -- er, I mean politician -- or ensconced in the MIC vertical is still very much in a depression.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

2. Cry me a river.

They still made a boatload of profit.

:think:

[kestrel91316]

3. Wahhhhh, people don't want to/have money to buy their cheap

plastic crap from China anymore.

Cry me a river. Bring the mom and pop stores back.

[wtbymark]

4. I refuse to go to wallyworld

If I have to pay more, so be it. Haven't been there in 3 years.

[Sonoman]

6. I went in one for the first time a few weeks ago.

Driving from Montgomery, AL to Atlanta immediately after the ice storm that paralyzed Atlanta.

GF is from Wisconsin and can drive on ice, but she wanted to get 50# of cat litter in case we needed it for traction. The lady at the car rental desk directed us to a nearby WalMart.

What a miserable place, full of miserable people.

There was some homeless guy panhandling at the entrance.

The whole thing was pathetic.

Sonoman

[lonestarnot]

5. BWAAA ha ha ha too fucking bad, just breaks my fucking heart. bawaaaah ahah

ROFLMAO

[HubertHeaver]

7. Wal-Mart is hitting that "bag-of-air" that exists when your

focus is the bottom of the market. Assuming a Friday payday, the money is running out on Monday instead of Thursday. In other words, one cannot both work at Wal-Mart and have money to shop at Wal-Mart. For the ancient among us, WT Grant stores did the same thing in the last century.

[guruoo]

8. They have drastically reduced inventory, selection, & general upkeep of same

[Populist_Prole]

9. Phuck 'em. Evil empire. Good to see others are like minded

Just finding out now that consumers are also workers? What did they think, after we stopped calling the inhabitants of this land of ours citizens and instead called them consumers that these same people would exist in a vacuum? Nourished by what? Cheap plastic shite?

Idiotic way to do business. Losers. :mad:

[UpInArms]

10. lure back U.S. consumers living paycheck to paycheck

a barbie isn't very tasty - and too small for much of a meal at $5

[AndyTiedye]

11. A Tiny Violin Quartet for MalWart

:nopity::nopity::nopity::nopity: