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Walmart is the canary in the coal mine. I said that back in 2007 when the wheels started falling off the bus.
Walmart caters to the least financially able in society. When the food stamp folks can't keep Walmart in the black then you know that things are not good in America.
The various dollar stores are currently doing booming business. That should tell you where these "consumers" are shopping these days.
I used to shop at WalMart almost exclusively. Then, starting a year or so ago, I noticed they stopped stocking the shelves. Almost everything I went in for that day was out of stock. I took pictures and emailed them into corporate.
The next week I went in, same thing. There was the paper towel aisle with no paper towels. The Smucker's jam shelf with no jam, just jelly. No beans. No Prego marinara sauce, no wheat pasta. No flour. No sugar! I couldn't believe it. I now go to Target, which is right across the street. It's cleaner, has better clientele, and fully stocked shelves. Their produce is decent, unlike WalMart's which is halfway rotten by the time it hits the shelf.
We gave WalMart a month to stock their shelves, and eventually gave up.
I'm not sure what WalMart is doing, but you can't sell product you don't have.
I find it interesting that the guidance for FY '17 includes increasing labor costs, which on the surface appear to be a one time hit to the bottom line. Labor costs are customarily recurring charges for purposes of acounting. Walmart currently employees a LOT of people.
I find it interesting that the guidance for FY '17 includes increasing labor costs, which on the surface appear to be a one time hit to the bottom line. Labor costs are customarily recurring charges for purposes of acounting. Walmart currently employees a LOT of people.
Don't forget that many cities and states have instituted the min $15/hour law.
By 2017 Walmart will be hit for that.
Good point! Since the Fiscal Year '17 starts next year and ends Jan '17, I got to thinking about how they intend to increase earnings by FY '19? Cut actual labor, raise prices, increase sales? It looks like they have begun to adjust growth strategy. Trimming projected new store openings, especially in the Neighhood Markets division. I agree with your assesment, they are the "economic canary in the coal mine"
Good point! Since the Fiscal Year '17 starts next year and ends Jan '17, I got to thinking about how they intend to increase earnings by FY '19? Cut actual labor, raise prices, increase sales? It looks like they have begun to adjust growth strategy. Trimming projected new store openings, especially in the Neighhood Markets division. I agree with your assesment, they are the "economic canary in the coal mine"
So I asked myself "If these people aren't going to Walmart then where are they going ?"
The dollar stores my friend..the next lowest rung after Walmart.
I'm now going to look into Dollar General and Big Lots as possible investments.
Walmart is also changing how they do self-checkouts to curb shoplifting and cheating.
They corral a section off and have the self checkouts along the 3 walls with 1 person sitting higher up along the 4th wall where they can see everything going on. And all people have to pass this one person on their way out.
That one person also has a computer screen that shows all the checkouts in that section.
They have that installed in the Walmart where my son lives. I was checking it out and saw the screen (techno geek here). I counted 9 checkouts within that corral. That's 1 person overseeing 9 checkouts, maybe two on the weekends when there are crowds. Now that's labor reduction.
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