Sunday, February 17, 2013

Walmart Wonders Where Are All the Shoppers

"Walmart executives sweat slow start to February sales" by Renee Dudley  |  The Washington Post, February 16, 2013

NEW YORK — Walmart Stores Inc. had the worst sales start to a month in seven years as payroll tax increases hit shoppers already battling a slow economy, according to internal e-mails obtained by Bloomberg News.

Oh, that is what they are blaming it on? The chump-change $6 a week the government is taking back?

Does Walmart sell six packs of beer?

‘‘In case you haven’t seen a sales report these days, February MTD sales are a total disaster,’’ Jerry Murray, Walmart’s vice president of finance and logistics, said in a Feb. 12 e-mail to other executives, referring to month-to-date sales. ‘‘The worst start to a month I have seen in my ~ 7 years with the company.’’ 

That can't be good because this is where Americans go to $hop. 

Walmart and discounters such as Family Dollar Stores are bracing for the rise in the payroll tax to take a bigger bite from the paychecks of shoppers already dealing with elevated unemployment.

Yeah, that tax increase was agreed to by both of those f***ing pos political parties down there. The bickering was over the wealthy and whether they would get one at all. 

And I've been told employment was.... aaaah, never mind. 

The world’s largest retailer’s struggles come after executives expected a strong start to February because of the Super Bowl, milder weather and paycheck cycles, according to the minutes of a Feb. 1 officers meeting Bloomberg obtained.

Murray’s comments about February sales follow disappointing results from January, a month that Cameron Geiger, senior vice president of Walmart US Replenishment, said he was relieved to see end, according to a separate internal e-mail obtained by Bloomberg....

And the economy also contracted in the last quarter of last year, an unheard of thing when you consider the socially- and culturally-enforced holiday shopping spree meant to spike sales and statistics. 

Geiger asked in a Feb. 1 e-mail to executives: ‘‘Where are all the customers? And where’s their money?’’

Well, let's see there are the debt and loan payments to banks, the ever-increasing taxes and fees to fund corporate looting and lavish political lifestyles, the unmentioned but meteoric (pun intended) rise in gasoline prices this week, the unbelievably high food costs (coinciding with Bernanke rolling those dollars off the printing presses to prop up the euro and European banks), the looting across AmeriKan institutions (even education), and the complete destruction of the American economy (it's too far gone and beyond fixing now. Too many jobs off-shored and outsourced that are never coming back) -- as this Walmart article proves.

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