Sam Walton's Heirs Lose Almost $6 Billion in One Day

[Purveyor]

by Marine Strauss and Renee Dudley
12:30 PM EDT
May 20, 2015

Four Wal-Mart heirs shed $5.7 billion from their collective net worth yesterday after the world's largest retailer posted first-quarter earnings that missed analysts’ estimates. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based company's U.S. sales grew more slowly than projected and currency fluctuations ate into profit.

Earnings amounted to $1.03 a share, excluding some items, Wal-Mart said in a statement Tuesday. Analysts had predicted $1.05 on average.



Wal-Mart’s stock fell 4.4 percent to $76.43 at the close in New York, the biggest one-day drop since April 2012, causing the fortunes of Alice Walton, Jim Walton, Rob Walton and Christy Walton to plummet. Their shares have declined 11 percent this year, for a total of $14 billion in combined losses. Revenue also was light last quarter, with the company’s U.S. supercenters and Sam’s Club locations posting slower growth than estimated.

Sam’s Club, Wal-Mart's warehouse division, posted its worst first-quarter sales in years, a sign it’s falling further behind Costco. in winning the hearts of America’s bulk shoppers. After dropping 3 percent last quarter, Sam’s Club revenue is now at its lowest level in three years. Costco, meanwhile, saw growth of 8 percent on that basis in its most recent results.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-20/sam-walton-s-heirs-lose-almost-6-billion-in-one-day

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. My heart bleeds.

[irisblue]

2. sniff sniff

[closeupready]

3. Won't shop there, and don't hestitate to share my feelings with friends

and family if the topic comes up. Costco all the way for me.

[Sherman A1]

14. Agreed

[sabrina 1]

34. Same here. I have persuaded people to find other places to shop. Wish we had a Costco where I live

so they could go there. But once people learn about their practices, it does wake them up.

[Marrah_G]

4. And they won't even miss it.

It's just hoarded money.

[Enthusiast]

29. +1 You nailed it.

[hifiguy]

5. So sad, too bad. nt

[brewens]

7. I wish I could say I helped but I never shopped there in the first place. n/t

[niyad]

8. hmm, didn't sam say "it's only paper" when the market crashed in 87? it isn't like these

people are going to miss it or anything.

[arcane1]

9. Maybe they should get jobs n/t

[Faux pas]

10. Couldn't

happen to a nicer (sarcasim) family. Boo hoo.

[reddread]

11. is this going to impact any SuperPAC's?

this could be terrible news.
if only a billion was what it used to be.

[blm]

12. Because the rich are making the poor even poorer, while they

whine about the poor not spending more in their stores.

Then they hire Republican lawmakers to make sure the poor are kept poor.

[tularetom]

13. Yeah, duh, WTF is wrong with this picture?

You need to have income before you can be a consumer.

If everybody made $15 an hour, they could spend a hell of a lot more money at wally world.

If a dumbass like me can understand that, why can't all the MBA's that advise these filthy rich plutocrats?

[Exilednight]

15. It's been my experience that most don't have an MBA. Being a

Person with an MBA, I can tell you from experience that very few schools teach innovative or critical thought.

[closeupready]

16. Cuz MBA's are hired to find data supporting pre-found findings likely.

Findings that, SURPRISE!, support trickle-down/voodoo economics! (And such findings are likely pre-given to the MBA's or something like that.)

[blm]

19. The high end stores are doing GREAT and multiplying - stores where poor shop are in decline

because working families can't afford ANY extra expenditures.

While the financial elites are buying their 2nd wife a 4th house and sneaking out with their 5th mistress who wants a 3rd car to celebrate her 3rd boob job.

[erronis]

25. Hey, what's wrong with a third or fourth boob?

I liked your numeric sequence, however.

Barely PC.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

42. The people they hire to run the business are whining about poor people not spending money.

That's a problem for the petty little bean counter.

While the family spends millions to (along with a handful of other super wealthy families)'to try and avoid "death taxes"

There was a paper written called "Spending Millions To Save Billions"

Walmart Co. - the single largest recipients of food stamp dollars. One of the busiest times at Walmart is midnight at the beginning of the month when benefit cards get money transfer in.


Walton family - one of the largest recipients of lower personal income taxes and/or any potential benefit of any repeal of the "death tax"

[Initech]

17. Poor little billionaires.

[Doctor_J]

18. every cloud has a silver lining

Most of us in institutional retirement plans probably took a hit on this too, but the news in the op will ease the sting

[mountain grammy]

20. ooops, will this hurt the trickle down pay raise

they had planned for employees? After all, $6 billion, that would sure hurt me... oh wait, guess you have to have a few billion to lose a few billion. Never mind, and I still avoid Walmart like the plague it is.

[jwirr]

21. Wonder how much of this has to do with the closing of those stores?

[madokie]

22. Still not enough

fuck the whole bunch of them as far as I'm concerned

[sakabatou]

23. Lemme get my angstrom-sized violin

[world wide wally]

24. They can take comfort in the fact that at least it wasn't paid in taxes what would help the country

[Dont call me Shirley]

26. ...

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://www.123rf.com/clipart-vector/cry.html&h=1300&w=1300&tbnid=8aUlxdnTuKS0FM:&zoom=1&docid=0RGt-zkGa8ovJM&hl=en-US&ei=kOVcVcGvLoGQsAXa7IDwCw&tbm=isch&ved=0CFcQMyhTMFM4ZA

[erronis]

27. Don't weep for them. Notice the limits on the graph are all the way from $80 to $77 - stock price

So, roughly 4%. Now if it was from $80 to $7 I'd be really happy for them.

This is not necessarily related to their net worth since they're well known to be heavily invested into many other items, especially "art".

[lpbk2713]

28. They'll fire a few hundred employees just to make themselves feel better.

Maybe even shut down a few stores without explanation.

[Eleanors38]

30. Hogs goosing each other under a deer feeder.

[DonCoquixote]

31. Hey Waltons

You just proved what henry Ford knew long ago, that you need people to afford your stuff if you wanna stay rich. I know i know, the masses of China and India are so ready to be your new, compliant, middle class, save that they won't, because they have states that can and will slit your throats.

BTW Alice, just because youy plan to donate to Hillary just not mean that you will be forgiven for being a drunk dirver that killed someone, or an art thief that took advanatge of underfuneded public services to rob people of artwirk so that you could build you little musuem legacy ion bentonville.

[turbinetree]

32. Cry me a river..............

This is what it like to be a Walton:


http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/07/walmart-heirs-waltons-wealth-income-inequality

http://billmoyers.com/2014/05/11/how-the-wal-mart-heirs-got-their-wealth/


Alice Walton----------35+ Billion

Robson Walton------------ 35+ Billion

Christy Walton-----------37+ Billion

Jim Walton----------------37+ Billion

[progressoid]

33. Costco, meanwhile, saw growth of 8 percent

[Spitfire of ATJ]

35. It'll rebound when bargain hunters snap up stock from paniced sellers.

[d_legendary1]

36. They're still billionaires

I still don't see how they lost.

[whatthehey]

37. buying opportunity at p/e under 16. Overreaction.

[SummerSnow]

38. I guess the Walmart workers won't get their raise now

[SummerSnow]

39. oh no!! boo hoo hoo...

[global1]

40. Wal-Mart Is Suffering Because Their Employees Are Sabotaging Their Business....

An unhappy employee doesn't care about their employer if the employer doesn't care about them. It's a job and they don't go out of their way or that extra mile for the business.

Two major things are happening in Wal-Mart stores: 1. Shelves aren't well stocked; a lot of outages of common items; inventory control sucks; and 2. Customer service is suffering; the employees don't treat the customers well; and convey an 'I don't care' attitude towards customers.

Customers in turn are not returning to the stores and going elsewhere to find product and be treated better.

Bottom line Wal-Mart needs to understand that a happy employee translates down to happy customers.

Until Wal-Mart starts paying their employees a living wage and treats them better than they are today - Wal-Mart will continue a downward slide.

[Jesus Malverde]

41. Supercenters are filled with cheap Chinese crap.

Walmart lost its appeal many years ago. Can you imagine their business planning. Lets see what we can cut to eek out a profit.

[Faryn Balyncd]

43. Easy come, easy go. What % in total federal & state taxes do Walton heirs pay relative to the

..total % of income paid in federal and state taxes by their greeters, stackers, and cashiers?