Wal Mart CEO: "Shoppers Are Running Out Of Money"; There Is "No Sign Of A Recovery"

[stockholmer]

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/wal-mart-ceo-shoppers-are-running-out-money-there-no-sign-recovery

When a month ago the CEO of Wal Mart Americas told the world to "prepare for serious inflation", the Chairman laughed in his face, saying it was nothing a 15 minutes Treasury Call sell order can't fix (granted net of a few billions in commissions for JPM).

4 weeks later the Chairman is no longer laughing, having been forced to hike up his inflation expectations while trimming (not for the last time) his economic outlook. "U.S. consumers face "serious" inflation in the months ahead for clothing, food and other products, the head of Wal-Mart's U.S. operations warned Wednesday talking to USA Today . And if Wal-Mart which is at the very bottom of commoditized consumer retail, and at the very peak of avoiding reexporting of US inflation by way of China is concerned, it may be time to panic, or at least cancel those plane tickets to Zimbabwe, which is soon coming to us."

In light of that perhaps today's words of caution from Wal Mart CEO Mike Duke will be taken a tad more seriously (yes, even with the $50 billion in "squatters rent" that the deadbeats spend on iPads instead of paying their mortgage: that money is rapidly ending). Warning is as follows: "Wal-Mart's core shoppers are running out of money much faster than a year ago due to rising gasoline prices, and the retail giant is worried. "We're seeing core consumers under a lot of pressure," Duke said at an event in New York. "There's no doubt that rising fuel prices are having an impact." Tell that to Printocchio please..................................."

[tridim]

1. I'm sure Wal Mart's destroying of American manufacturing jobs has nothing to do with it

[cherokeeprogressive]

30. I'm not sure which manufacturing jobs you're referring to...

T-shirts? Trinkets? Tennis shoes? TV's?

Surely they had nothing to do with heavy equipment manufacturers and the like moving their operations overseas.

[tridim]

31. Maybe not TV's, but pretty much everything else that is made in China now..

BECAUSE WalMart wanted everything they sell for 10% less and made it so. Yes, we used to make shoes and clothes in America.

[woodsprite]

2. So it's finally starting to bite the "Richie Riches" in the butt. n/t

[Poboy]

3. r'd...from CNN...

Wal-Mart: Our shoppers are 'running out of money'
By Parija Kavilanz, senior writerApril 28, 2011: 10:43 AM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Wal-Mart's core shoppers are running out of money much faster than a year ago due to rising gasoline prices, and the retail giant is worried, CEO Mike Duke said Wednesday.

"We're seeing core consumers under a lot of pressure," Duke said at an event in New York. "There's no doubt that rising fuel prices are having an impact."

Wal-Mart shoppers, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck, typically shop in bulk at the beginning of the month when their paychecks come in. Lately, they're "running out of money" at a faster clip, he said. "Purchases are really dropping off by the end of the month even more than last year," Duke said. "This end-of-month cycle is growing to be a concern.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/04/27/news/companies/walmart_ceo_consumers_under_pressure/index.htm

[KamaAina]

21. "Wal-Mart shoppers, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck,"

Why is that, in the wealthiest society in human history? Of course, many of them are also Wal-Mart serfs associates, who get slightly above minimum wage and just few enough hours not to get health insurance. :eyes:

[leveymg]

4. It's amazing to me how few people around here seem interested in the real economy

Meanwhile, they waste their time yammering about NewsCop-planted stories like Obama's birth certificate or chortling happily about the mussed-up state of Trump's comb-over.

America: "We're Number 1!" In economic decline.

[cherokeeprogressive]

18. Personally I think too many swallow this administrations bullshit cooked numbers regarding the whole

bag of oranges.

Too much "This is great news! Things are trending upward!" followed quietly by downward revision a month or two later.

[leveymg]

19. Swallow? They spit them out with a relish.

We all know there are cheerleaders planted here among us. Nobody else is cheering these days, because there's practically nothing left to cheer about.

As for the BLS's constant, ongoing revisions of its numbers. My G-d, do they also work for Moody's?

[cherokeeprogressive]

22. Makes you wonder, huh. n/t

[Amonester]

23. And it's amazing to me how few CEOs seem able to understand...

Such a simple *concept* as *people need a higher income (or jobs or *social entitlements* to begin with)* to be able to buy their useless crap.

Really? These imposteur$ had *Lessons 101 in Economic Matters*? Where?


Ed.: These f*ckeRs dRove the *lesser people* (their mentality) to the edge of the cliff, only NOW realizing they may have nowhere else to go but down the bottomless abyss, THEMSELVES INCLUDED?

Give me a f*cking break! :grr:

F*CK these irresponsible looters!

[leveymg]

28. The big global banks and multinationals have already moved their cash offshore.

There has seemingly been no public resistance to that by the leadership in either political party.

It's us versus them (and "them" own both the Democrats and the GOP). Both parties have to go in their present incarnations, as far as I'm concerned.

[L0oniX]

5. Worried? Aww 'snif snif' the poor CEO.

[thereismore]

6. Go to hell, Walmart. We'll be OK without you. nt

[leveymg]

Now, THAT would be one of the fastest routes to American economic recovery.

Close every Wall*Mart. You'd see a rebirth of small retail in America, and if those little stores selectively sourced U.S.-made goods, a rebirth in American manufacturing, as well.

[earthside]

7. See this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4830334

[buddysmellgood]

8. Walmart needs to sell Lexus. Those folks have plenty of money

[maxrandb]

9. Hey Walmart! Fuggg You!!!!

Maybe you should think about paying your employees better "effing" wages, or quit buying all your cheap shit from China!

The fucking wealthy are beginning to realize that they've fucked up this country with the non-stop selfish greed bullshit of the Reagan Fucking Revolution.

Yeah, it was a fucking Revolution alright. It was a revolution right back to the fucking 1920's!!!!

Fuck you Walmart!!! I thought all this shit was supposed to be "trickling-ass down" by now!

[Arugula Latte]

10. They want it both ways.

They want massive tax breaks and imported Chinese goods and union busting and poverty wages for workers but they also want the masses to magically have enough money to spend at their stores.

[DJ13]

14. +1

[Andy823]

11. If he is so worried

Why not simply go to their "bought and paid for" members of congress and tell them to put a stop to the speculation going on in the oil markets? Or tell them to get tougher with regulations that let wall street manipulate the price of commodities like oil, and food? If these business's are so worried why not pressure the republicans in congress to do something instead of avoid the "real" problems and dwell on crap like the presidents birth certificate and now his grades from college?

[DJ13]

12. Walmart also has a large % of seniors who shop there

With the rigged inflation numbers that were used to deny any COLA for Social Security recipients two years in a row they dont have any money to buy anything but the cheapest necessities.

[RebelOne]

27. Well, I am a senior 72 years old

and I do not have to shop at Walmart. Who knows, in the future I may have to. But I have always avoided shopping at Walmart even though it is just up the road from me. One of the main reasons is the parking. I don't like parking in never-never land.

[orwell]

13. Walmart CEO sez...

...I can't figure out why the working poor have no money.

It can't be that large multinationals like us, headquartered in right to work states like Arkansas, pay our employees subsistence wages while we direct all the profits from their increased productivity directly into our boardroom.

It must be that the President is a socialist...

[Recursion]

15. Err... that seems backwards

And if Wal-Mart which is at the very bottom of commoditized consumer retail, and at the very peak of avoiding reexporting of US inflation by way of China is concerned, it may be time to panic

No. Wal~Mart is going to be hit harder than anyone else because they operate at tiny prices and miniscule margins, and energy costs hit them very hard.

[The_Casual_Observer]

16. The economic community have been denying the effect that oil

prices have on the economy for years. Now all of a sudden it's the main problem.

[Marr]

17. And yet the owners have more money than ever. You'd think the solution would be obvious.

But nope. Let's prime this machine with... the same thing that broke it! More trickle down!

[Coyote_Bandit]

20. I can't help thinking that

what goes around comes around - and Wal-Mart is simply reaping the harvest of the policies and practices they sowed over the last several decades.

Their core shoppers are the people whose needs and interests they have most undermined. Many of those shoppers didn't have a lot of alternatives so they continued to patronize the devil himself. But Wal-Mart - which certainly had the resources to pursue another course of action - in their unrestrained greed continued to undermine the financial wherewithal of their shoppers.

[emulatorloo]

24. Yeah, blame it all on "gas prices". Look in the mirror, walmart

[underseasurveyor]

25. I would LOVE to see walmart implode

That will be a happy day for me :-)

[no_hypocrisy]

26. Viscious Circle and Karma Blowback

1. Wal Mart buys in bulk and can sell merchandise at prices lower than competitors who aren't boxstores.
2. Competitors lose profits and go out of business. Jobs lost.
3. Wal Mart contracts with global corporations with factories in China and purchases its stock merchandise from China.
4. Factories in the U.S. lose profits and go out of business. Jobs lost.
5. Customers of Wal Mart can no longer take advantage of its low, low prices because they have no jobs or because they don't have jobs that let them have discretionary spending money.

[Ship of Fools]

29. yep

when i'm too broke to buy cheap shit made from china, of COURSE the country is in trouble. hope that when wal-mart becomes the sole employer of our banana republic, they'll pay us all a reasonably decent wage.

[Matariki]

32. Could it be because everything you sell is made in China?

[Initech]

33. Like I said - because of this quote, when the revolt happens...

I'm taking over a walmart and declaring it a sovereign nation. They can kiss my ass.

[OhioChick]

34. Walmart put many out of work...they shouldn't be surprised by the outcome n/t

[CoffeeCat]

35. Didn't the billionaires think this through?????????

Ok. Many have mentioned this point and I think it bears repeating. The rich have been
amassing all of this wealth and bankrupting the middle and upper-middle classes. They
didn't seem to mind for the longest time--what they were doing to us. Lobbying for tax
cuts for themselves, while outsourcing jobs, paying junk wages, cutting benefits and
laying people off in order to "increase shareholder value".

What the hell did they care? They still had their luxury yachts and their mansions--what's it to
them if we had a hard time paying the bills, affording healthcare or affording
groceries?

We were the invisible masses for so long. It's been three years since the economy crashed
and I've heard WORD NONE from these corporate big wigs and elites--about what they would do
as business leaders and owners to help ease the pain--as all of them cut our wages, forced
us to take pay cuts and took advantage of the desperately unemployed by hiring only employed
people--and at falling wages!

Many of us have said repeatedly--how in the world do these billionaires and multi-millionaires
think they're going to survive when their customers are all too poor to buy their stuff? These
very rich people rely on consumers purchasing their goods and buying their services.

I don't care if you own a chain of grocery stores or an art gallery or a movie theater or a
car dealership. If the middle class and the upper middle class are not spending--you will
collapse right along with us.

No one seemed to care about the peasants, until now. This is the first concern I've ever
heard expressed from the upper 1 percent regarding the lower 99 percent. Of course, the
concern is for their own profits--but GEEEZ, did this really not enter their mind before
they put the screws to us???

NIMRODS!

[MedleyMisty]

38. They are not intelligent

That whole cream rises to the top, if you so smart why ain't you rich, the rich guys are the smartest guys in the room - that is all complete and total BS.

Psychopaths rise to the top in a culture based on predatory capitalism. Psychopaths do not think about the future and are incapable of complex thought, of seeing obvious things like - oh hey, if we take all the money from our customers and roll around in it, one day they won't have any more money to give us. All they know is "Hey, more money for me now, haha you losers with your "conscience" and your "ethics" and your "reality"! I win!"

Check out this list, and tell me it doesn't describe your typical corporatist.

http://www.oregoncounseling.org/Handouts/PsychopathicPersonality.htm

And if we don't get rid of them, they are going to drive the species over the cliff.

[Generic Brad]

40. They have thought this through very carefully

Eventually we all end up as their slaves. That sure looks like their plan to me because the way things are going it is the only logical conclusion I can draw.

[WinkyDink]

36. The billionaire owners could give away some money.

[RagAss]

37. Pssssst....I think they're going to Target.

[mountainlion55]

39. Hey Wally-mart

Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. Wal-Mart sucks!