Wednesday, February 23, 2011

When Walmart is too expensive....

When Walmart is too expensive, America really is in big trouble.


Read this article from Reuters regarding Wal-Mart's disappointing results: "The retailer reported its seventh consecutive quarterly decline in sales at U.S. stores open at least a year, posting a 1.8 percent drop that was much bigger than its worst forecast....rivals such as Family Dollar Stores and Dollar General have gained appeal with shoppers on tight budgets by offering lower prices, albeit for smaller quantities, on goods such as detergent, especially as those shoppers run short on money at the end of the month."

So, gee, I wonder: is the recession over? Sure, President Obama's new chief of staff, William Daley, received over $8M in compensation last year. But it sure does seem like lots and lots of people are doing very poorly, indeed, when Wal-Mart is too expensive for them. That gargantuan company is responsible for pushing down both prices and wages across the United States and other parts of the world. It forces suppliers to revamp their computer and distribution systems to improve efficiency (and reduce their prices).

And yet they are losing customers, who are so poor they can only afford to buy products in stores that specialize in re-selling stuff that other stores couldn't or didn't want to sell.

Must be the fault of public employee unions.

1 comment:

Noons said...

It's called a "race to the bottom".

Walmart, Costco, Amazon and many others started it. Now they are reaping the rewards.

No one wins when the target is to reduce the purchasing power of the middle class.