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Old 04-15-2009, 09:57 PM
 
Location: Michigan
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WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) — The head of Wal-Mart Stores (WMT), the world's biggest retailer, said Wednesday there remains a "lot of stress" in the economy and he did not anticipate a quick end to the recession.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/econom...mart-ceo_N.htm
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Old 04-19-2009, 10:06 PM
 
Location: Wauwatosa
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why would they want a recession to end? they are a cheap store, people dont have money and go there. When people have money and status matters people goto target. think about it
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Old 04-24-2009, 12:25 PM
 
2,654 posts, read 5,442,470 times
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Originally Posted by hamiltonra25 View Post
why would they want a recession to end? they are a cheap store, people dont have money and go there. When people have money and status matters people goto target. think about it
Agreed! I am by no means saying we are out of the woods yet, or will be anytime soon. But the CEO of WMT has an inherit interest in talking down the economy. As long as people - and wall st in particular - believes the economy is down and WMT is the retailer people will go to stetch their $ in tight times, his stock price will go higher as it is believed this will drive earnings growth. Much of a stock's price can be based on perceptions, not just reality.
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Old 04-24-2009, 05:34 PM
 
Location: Conejo Valley, CA
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He does not really have an interest in talking down the economy. It is only in terms of food and related items that Walmart does well in the recession. But these are pretty low margin in terms of profit. All their big ticket sales are getting killed just like everyone else.
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Old 04-24-2009, 11:46 PM
 
2,654 posts, read 5,442,470 times
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Originally Posted by user_id View Post
He does not really have an interest in talking down the economy. It is only in terms of food and related items that Walmart does well in the recession. But these are pretty low margin in terms of profit. All their big ticket sales are getting killed just like everyone else.
You are right they are losing in most of their margin making items. But the perception is they will continue to outpreform their peers in rough econimc times so as investor look for places to put money to work during the downturn, WMT gets a boost. Take a look at WMT's stock v. the S&P & TGT since the market crashed. They are down half as much as everyone else.

WAL MART STORES Share Price Chart | WMT - Yahoo! Finance
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Old 04-24-2009, 11:49 PM
 
Location: Wauwatosa
188 posts, read 475,656 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by user_id View Post
He does not really have an interest in talking down the economy. It is only in terms of food and related items that Walmart does well in the recession. But these are pretty low margin in terms of profit. All their big ticket sales are getting killed just like everyone else.
I personally think you are missing an important factor in Walmarts business plan. You are correct, bread, eggs, and milk typically have very small margins. HOWEVER, when you sell such a high volume of these items they become profitable. Say normal grocery stores sell 10 gallons of milk @ .10 profit per gallon, $1 total profit. Walmart sells 50 gallons @ .05 profit. 2.50 total profit. So again WMT will hoot and holler that the economy is in the tank, cause they are a HIGH VOLUME discount retailer. BTW we have already created the floor of the stock market. Housing indexes are on the rise and once that can start rolling again we will see progress
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Old 04-25-2009, 04:50 AM
 
Location: Conejo Valley, CA
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Originally Posted by hamiltonra25 View Post
I personally think you are missing an important factor in Walmarts business plan. You are correct, bread, eggs, and milk typically have very small margins. HOWEVER, when you sell such a high volume of these items they become profitable.
I'm perfectly aware that Wal-mart is a high volume retailer (who isn't?). Their volume is already part of their margin. Selling food at low margins would not work at lower volumes. The point is Wal-mart relies on the more high margin items to pull a profit. They can break even on foods just to get people in the store and then make all of their money on more big ticket items. To some degree that is exactly what they do.

Quote:
Originally Posted by hamiltonra25 View Post
cause they are a HIGH VOLUME discount retailer. BTW we have already created the floor of the stock market.
Their profits are down because although they are doing well on food, etc they are doing poorly on where they make their real money.

Quote:
Originally Posted by hamiltonra25 View Post
BTW we have already created the floor of the stock market.
Housing indexes are on the rise and once that can start rolling again we will see progress
Who created a floor in the stock market? The market was much lower just a couple of months ago and it has seen short term stability a number of times only to decline again. Housing indexes are on the rise? Which? House prices are still declining, not only that notice of defaults and foreclosures are increasing! The fun is just getting started.
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Old 04-25-2009, 08:11 AM
 
Location: South Walton Florida
187 posts, read 947,117 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by John1960 View Post
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) — The head of Wal-Mart Stores (WMT), the world's biggest retailer, said Wednesday there remains a "lot of stress" in the economy and he did not anticipate a quick end to the recession.

Wal-Mart CEO doesn't see a quick end to recession - USATODAY.com
The age of Wal Mart is now irrevocable. We saw their start, their establishment as a brand, their growth, and the backlash as their competitors finally said, "uh oh".

They withstood the backlash stage and are now firmly entrenched. This is irrevocable. All of these stages took place over decades. Wal Mart has only one thing to do now, perpetual store interior design makeovers.

They executed the #1, most important strategem nearly without flaw: WalMart has cut the Product Manufacture through to Point of Sale process to the absolute bone. This is the Psychozoic Era. The Age of the Mind is going to prove to be all about manufacturing and point of sale to the final user without the middleman.

It will take a broad, grassroots, under the radar course of action to interrupt their hold. The idea of a movement this broad is self refuting. How can it have the breadth required and still be under the radar?

Now America needs to support Wal Mart in it's global expansion efforts.

Last edited by AAbsolute; 04-25-2009 at 08:17 AM.. Reason: I'm an egg-nor-ameous
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Old 04-25-2009, 03:49 PM
 
Location: Wauwatosa
188 posts, read 475,656 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by user_id View Post
I'm perfectly aware that Wal-mart is a high volume retailer (who isn't?). Their volume is already part of their margin. Selling food at low margins would not work at lower volumes. The point is Wal-mart relies on the more high margin items to pull a profit. They can break even on foods just to get people in the store and then make all of their money on more big ticket items. To some degree that is exactly what they do.


Their profits are down because although they are doing well on food, etc they are doing poorly on where they make their real money.


Who created a floor in the stock market? The market was much lower just a couple of months ago and it has seen short term stability a number of times only to decline again. Housing indexes are on the rise? Which? House prices are still declining, not only that notice of defaults and foreclosures are increasing! The fun is just getting started.
Just because a housing prices are declining doesnt mean that the housing indexes are slumping. These homes that were built in mid 2000s were overpriced so they will take a massive hit in order to be back at a normal value. The floor has been created. Go look at residential construction as an industry, its on the rebound. Sorry that your a bear, but its over chump
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Old 04-25-2009, 06:29 PM
 
Location: Conejo Valley, CA
12,460 posts, read 19,992,436 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hamiltonra25 View Post
Just because a housing prices are declining doesnt mean that the housing indexes are slumping.
Which housing index is not slumping? Every index that measures housing that I know of is "slumping". The only thing that has improved a bit are sales, but that is not an index. But even there, its highly deceptive as its primarily foreclosures that are selling in most areas.

Quote:
Originally Posted by hamiltonra25 View Post
These homes that were built in mid 2000s were overpriced so they will take a massive hit in order to be back at a normal value. The floor has been created. Go look at residential construction as an industry, its on the rebound. Sorry that your a bear, but its over chump
Whether residential construction as an industry has bottomed is a very different question as whether house prices in some sense have bottomed. Residential construction is almost at a stand-still it can't get much worse!!

I ask again who created the floor? The number of foreclosures is still increasing, prices are still declining, where is the floor?

And what is with this bear line? I'm looking at the data and I see no data that indicates that stocks or house have bottomed in some sense. You not cited anything that justifies your view.
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