NYT/Reuters: Wal-Mart's Weak Sales Dampen Holiday Season Hopes

[DeepModem Mom]

Wal-Mart's Weak Sales Dampen Holiday Season Hopes
By REUTERS
Published: November 25, 2006

CHICAGO ( Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. reported surprisingly weak November sales on Saturday, even as U.S. bargain-hunters jammed stores in search of gifts at the start of the crucial holiday shopping season.

Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, sounded a cautious note for retailers as they began a second day of Thanksgiving weekend sales with deep discounts and early bird specials on items ranging from cashmere sweaters to plasma televisions.

Wal-Mart estimated that November sales fell 0.1 percent at its U.S. stores open at least a year -- a closely watched retail measure known as same-store sales.

The retailer had expected same-store sales to be flat compared with the same period last year, which many Wall Street analysts had viewed as disappointing.

"We would frankly have expected better,'' Merrill Lynch retail sector analyst Virginia Genereux wrote in a note to clients dated Friday, noting that the early markdowns and expansion of Wal-Mart's widely publicized $4 generic drug program should have drawn more shoppers....

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-retail-holiday.html

[dkofos]

1. Are the sheeple finally tiring of cheap chinese crap??

[Nabia2004]

6. No, just less disposable income - nt

[papau]

19. Bingo! - after "inflation" hourly wage flat for 6 years but inflation's understated

n/t

[Delphinus]

22. And,

there was a protest by some christian sect that boycotted Wal-Mart on Friday and Saturday because Wal-Mart is "friendly" towards gays and lesbians.

[diamidue]

12. Not EVERYTHING that cheap

My neighbor's daughter wanted this baby doll that they sell there:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4982741

And no, she won't be getting it.

[w4rma]

17. More places.

http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=24251093/

[greccogirl]

25. $88 for a doll? Not likely.

I did look this up though and Wal mart was still $10 cheaper than any of the others. I can't imagine an average person spending almost a hundred bucks for a doll, but I can't imagine people spending $600 on a video game either.

[rocktivity]

2. The real question is, have other retailers seen their sales get STRONGER?

If so, that would mean Wal-mart's bubble has burst!

:headbang:
rocknation

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

3. My response to Wal Mart's gradual yet accelerating downward direction...

:rofl: :rofl: MKJ

[gratuitous]

4. Time to cut employee salary and benefits again

Dammit, if people can't even afford the cheap stuff at Wal-Mart, maybe it's time to cut wages and benefits again. And the beatings will continue until morale improves!

[Dhalgren]

5. Maybe, just maybe, the poor of the country are feeling the slap

in the face of this terrible economy and simply can't afford even Wal Mart's cheap Chinese crap. There is a point at which even cheap prices can't make the step from poverty to sales. The economy in this country is a shambles and everyday the truth gets closer and closer to the surface. The few rich have gotten richer, but the massive number of poor has gotten poorer. Wal Mart feels it first...

[Buttercup McToots]

7. Geeesez

I was wonderin` where everyone was gettin` the money to shop...
I don't have any...I even got some bills I can't pay...sigh...
Woe

[Divernan]

21. No live tree for me this year; and bare minimum shopping.

I picked up nice little gifts for my SO and adult kids over the course of the year - not thinking at the time that these would be ALL that I would give them - but that's the way it's turning out. I am a person who has always gone crazy with Christmas shopping. This year, I have to buy a gift for my Mom, and that's it for the shopping. One of my kids is strapped because she took a job transfer and can't sell her house - so is paying mortgage and rent. I told her, don't bother with presents for me this year.

I'm making a quilted stocking for my SO's small gifts & homemade cookies, etc., and I got him a lovely small art print with a mat - but am not going to pay for professional framing. Any suggestions for where to pick up a simple, low-cost frame (12" by 15")? When he asked me what I wanted for Christmas, my first thought was, "deposit the money in my checking account", but I didn't say it.

And I used to pick up about half a dozen pointsettias to give to elderly neighbors, but not this year.

[AnneD]

27. Tips...

Check out the flea markets of second hand stores for a frame. Consider spray painting if you need to (or strip it down and redo it). I have drastically cut back too. Went to the early christmas sales-came out of Wally world with tee shirts and under ware for hubby and a purse for me. Merry Christmas. I picked up a few things in the dollar bin at Target (kids at school and for church food pantry).

So far I am under my limit of $200 which is even less than last year, and far less than the year before. I won't say Christmas is extinct in out household, but it surely is on life support.

[The Count]

8. Now it can be told - with the elections behind us, reality creeps in...

[bronxiteforever]

9. Great Oil Party also stole whatever was left of the working class's

disposable income. Higher gas prices on the rise again. Bleak winter coming thanks to the credit card G0P and their tax cuts

[sallyseven]

10. Maybe the people are getting sick of Wal Mart

and their stinking ways.

[OhioChick]

11. Weak Sales for Walmart?

Cry me a river.......

[NVMojo]

13. when a person's minimum wage pay gets taken up by the Thanksgiving

dinner costs, there ain't no money left to go Black Friday Xmas shopping. Idiots. They ought to try to walk a mile in the shoes of the poor they claim to be working with.

[AnnieBW]

14. Awwww...

Of course, the American Family Assholes will claim it's because people are boycotting Wal-Mart because they tolerate gays.

[dchill]

15. "...Dampen Holiday Season Hopes..."

What a crying shame. Perhaps they should adopt more generous and altruistic "Holiday Season Hopes" - it's cheaper and it's what it's really all about, anyway.

[DemBones DemBones]

16. Perhaps more people are celebrating Buy Nothing Day?

Personally, I started celebrating it years before I ever heard of it. I wouldn't go near a mall (or Mall-Wart) on the day after Thanksgiving.

But I used to enjoy doing my Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve -- the crowds are huge but in a better mood than the bargain hunters who turn out earlier in the season, not complaining about lines or anything.

[recoveringrepublican]

18. I'll be celebrating this all year round

I will only buy things that are needed. Clothes for me an my husband will be bought as much as possible at thrift stores. I don't like buy used clothes for my kids for some reason, but they have a uniform for school anyway and need minimal extra clothes so far. My family needs no more toys/gadgets, my husband and I have had enough. For our family/friend's kids they will all be getting books or savings bonds, they also have more shit than they need.

[fishnfla]

20. Target was whacked, WM changed the lay-away policy eom

[brentspeak]

23. Our nation has really fallen low if the rise-and-fall of Mall-Wart's fortunes

dictate the economy.

[greccogirl]

24. Don't believe a word of it. Every Wal Mart in town

is totally packed. There isn't even decent parking. What was the other article? They lost .01 of business?

You could fool me.

[lithiumbomb]

26. it's lowering expectations so they can only go up

I could swear they did this last season as well. They either said their sales were down, or they expected them to be down. And what a surprise, their sales, in the end, were up.