Leaked Internal Wal-Mart Email: "Where Are All The Customers? And Where's Their Money?" -Bloomberg

[hatrack]

EDIT

"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."

The weak February sales start came after a disappointing January, according to an email from Cameron Geiger, senior vice president of Wal-Mart U.S. Replenishment. Geiger's email was also quoted by Bloomberg. The replenishment department works on moving products from distribution centers to stores.

"Have you ever had one of those weeks where your best- prepared plans weren't good enough to accomplish everything you set out to do?" Geiger asked in a February 1 email to company executives. "Well, we just had one of those weeks here at Walmart U.S. Where are all the customers? And where's their money?"

Wal-Mart is scheduled to report fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday and has not pre-reported any sales figures. Analysts on average expect fourth-quarter sales at Walmart U.S. discount stores open at least a year to rise 1.7 percent, excluding gasoline sales, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

EDIT

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/15/us-walmart-shares-idUSBRE91E12R20130215

[brentspeak]

1. Blowback from Mall-Wart's destruction of US small business and domestic manufacturing

You can't expect your customers to have much money when you deprive them of their livelihoods.

[DearHeart]

2. We're all at Target, Dollar General, and Thrift stores!

Walmart never had lower prices than others. They would have low prices on a couple of things, just to get you into the damn store and everything else was just as expensive as anywhere else. Plus, when you went looking for the "sale" product, 9 times out of 10, they were out of stock! That place has sucked for years!!

[hay rick]

3. Their customers are dumpster diving.

They are discovering that Wal-Mart prices lead to Wal-Mart wages. Of course, the Bloomberg article blames the return of the normal level of payroll taxes...

[Initech]

4. Is there any money left that the Waltons, Kochs, and big oil haven't stolen from us?

[LiberalEsto]

7. I think there's about 60 cents in my handbag

but don't tell anyone

[awoke_in_2003]

10. Yep, the rich better come to the realization...

that if the rest of us don't have money we can't buy their crap.

[GP6971]

5. I wasn't aware they had Walmart fuel stations

None around here that I'm aware of.

I'm gradually getting my fairly new wife away from Walmart.......takes extra trips and time to mostly Target, but it's starting to pay off.

[Scootaloo]

9. What's the point of a monopoly if you can't dominate EVERY market?

[GP6971]

11. Very true. n/t

[bighart]

36. What makes target any better?

"Entry-level hourly workers in Target stores earn roughly the same pay and have more difficulty qualifying for health care coverage than their peers at Wal-Mart. Both retailers oppose unions and have taken steps to prevent organizing efforts in stores. And both have outsourced jobs overseas to save costs."

"Yet the companies have much in common. “The remarkable thing,” said Charles Fishman, author of “The Wal-Mart Effect,” “is that 80 percent of the stuff in Target and Wal-Mart is identical.” The prices are often identical, too."

http://reclaimdemocracy.org/walmart-vs-target-redux-they-have-more-in-common-than-you-think/

[southern_belle]

6. That was my New Year's resolution...

To NOT shop at Wal-Mart and I'm loving it!

[KoKo]

8. i'm not seeing many shoppers in stores where I am these days...

and I don't go to WalMart...but mostly the mainstream Dept. Stores.

Seems folks are returning stuff at the check out and it's more browsers than buyers. Also more stores closing in our three major malls but with signs on window saying "COMING SOON..." but with only a few mentioning the Store Name that is REALLY coming soon while the rest just offer "hope" for coming soon.

Also we have a high number of "family owned" type of restaurants closing...while the "chain restaurants" have parking lots filled along with the Drive In Windows with cars smoking gas while they wait to get their order.

It's kind of wild out there and upsetting at the same time as to WHO SURVIVES and WHO GOES UNDER.

The Big Conglomerate Chains doing GREAT...but the Independent Owners going under.

But....it's been posted here that our Economy is finally Doing Good and Jobs are coming back.

[GP6971]

12. We drive by the local Walmart everyday

and the parking lot is never as full as in the past.....regardless of the day of the week. When we do go in, it is by no means crowed and checkout lines are fairly short.

[IDemo]

13. "Have you ever had one of those weeks"

"where your best-prepared plans weren't good enough to accomplish everything you set out to do?"

I'm sure many have had weeks where eating and paying the rent were accomplishments that weren't both achievable.

[freshwest]

14. +1

[krispos42]

15. "We pay our people shit and get our products from foreign countries!"

"How come our customers don't have any money? I don't understand!!!!"



This is a classic example of how, when everybody does what's in their individual best interest, they are in fact fucking themselves.

Individually, it's in the best interest of every company to pay as little as possible for labor so they can increase profit margins. Collectively, it's in the best interest of every company to pay as much as possible so they can have loads of customers with fat wallets.

[annabanana]

17. Right on the head, krispos!

Rich & dumb. If they weren't rich they'd be dead.

[RB TexLa]

16. Hopefully people have stopped spending their money. If you have a job it's a lot better

for you to save as much as you can.

[Fumesucker]

18. Your work does not involve having customers for your services?

If everyone were to do as you say then there would be no customers for your services unless you're in the food, water or shelter business.

[RB TexLa]

19. Most people aren't smart or disciplined enough to save money

there are plenty of idiots to call customers for everyone.

[Fumesucker]

20. But you said that *everyone* should save as much as they can

If people did as you say they should then you would not have a job any more.

Neither would the great majority of people who currently have jobs, which would clearly effect your own job.

Essentially you have made the case that the economy depends on idiots.

Oh, and calling your customers idiots is hardly likely to endear you to them.

[RB TexLa]

21. Everyone should but most don't. You don't have to listen to me, go spend all your money.

[Fumesucker]

23. If everyone took your advice you would have no income to save

Why give advice that if everyone followed it would lead to your own unemployment?

Are you that altruistic, really?

I bet you are a big tipper when you go out to eat.

[RB TexLa]

24. Resturants do not deserve to have my money. I can buy and prepare food for myself.

[Fumesucker]

26. Are any restaurant employees or owners customers of yours?

Why should they spend their money on your services?

Is what you do an absolute necessity, food, water, shelter?

[RB TexLa]

28. How often do you think someone should have to eat at restaurants a week in order

to justify having restaurant employees or owners as customers? 5? 10? 20? 30?

I decide who deserves to have my money, and I decided I do. Just as you decide who deserves to have yours.

[Fumesucker]

29. The difference between us is I'm not giving advice that would wreck the economy if it was followed

[RB TexLa]

30. Advice I know that most people will not follow.

Feel free to just argue with yourself from here on.

[Fumesucker]

31. Which means the reason you're saying it is in order to make yourself feel better about your choices

[Skip Intro]

22. Are WM's shoppers too broke to shop?

Is this a blowback against a giant corp, or a scary sign that the economic situation in the US is far worse than we know?

[Fumesucker]

27. Probably some of both but more of the latter I suspect

The 99% just isn't getting the money to spend.


[link:http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022365380|The Richest 1 Percent Have Captured 121 Percent Of Income Gains During The Recovery
]

[kenny blankenship]

33. usually WMT customers are tapped after the end of the second week of a month

that's what their own sales stats and research tells them. WMT's target demographic couldn't care less about them being a giant evil corp. That sort of thing matters to my middle class liberal neighbors who are trying to block a Walmart going in near us, because they worry it will trash their property values and probably push their favorite stores to the edge of survival and trash the local retail ecosystem.

If it's possible to see the month's sales stalling out in shitty territory already by the 12th, and it happens again in March, that would suggest times are getting tougher for a whole lot of people.

I am trying to find a source for what I said. So far what I get are a bunch of stories from 2011 about the WMT CEO Mike Duke complaining that his customers are "broke" at the end of every month -their sales go flat at month's end- and that they appear to be running out of money sooner. You know. Incrementally.
http://money.cnn.com/2011/04/27/news/companies/walmart_ceo_consumers_under_pressure/index.htm

[hatrack]

35. I think there's a country song that addressed this - "Too Much Month At The End Of The Money"

.

[alarimer]

25. Two thins come to mind: the payroll tax and post-Christmas sticker shock

Most people's paychecks took a substantial hit in January from the return of the payroll tax to normal. Notice in the fiscal cliff negotiations there was never any discussions about cutting taxes for the 97%, only about not raising them on the top.

So most people lost money in January. But also the bills are coming due from Christmas and so they're paying those down.

I would guess February might be a slow month anyway.

[Permanut]

32. Sounds like Mr. Murray is experiencing some stress..

I recommend a nice cruise in the Gulf. Carnival Lines, something like that.

[hatrack]

34. (sound of coffee exploding though nose)

Hah!