Wal-Mart sales surge on stimulus windfall

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Source: CNN

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. trounced analyst expectations Thursday with a 5.8% jump in June sales for stores open at least one year, attributing the increase to the government's economic stimulus payments.

As a result of the strong month, the world's No. 1 retailer raised its earnings guidance for the second quarter ending this month.

Analysts interviewed by Thomson Reuters had expected an increase of 3.8% for the five weeks ended July 4, not including gas sales.

Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) credited the increase to strong seasonal sales driven by favorable weather and "improved assortments," as well as a continued windfall from the government's economic stimulus program. The stimulus also drove Wal-Mart sales in May.

Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/10/news/economy/same_store_sales/index.htm?cnn=yes

[raebrek]

1. Last night on the "Tonight Show"

Jay Leno said, during his monologue, that internet porn has been up 30% since the stimulus checks went out. Okay, the joke there was that they were using their stimulus checks to stimulate their package.

Raebrek!!!

[girl gone mad]

19. That notion came from an overinflated industry press release.

Turns out even horny people aren't dumb enough to blow their stimulus checks stimulating themselves with content that can be easily gotten for free.

[islandmkl]

2. follow the dotted lines, kiddies....

china....wal-mart...your $$$$...wal-mart...china

REPEAT

[Pale Blue Dot]

3. In other words, Americans spent the checks on necessities they could get cheaply.

This is not good news, but Wall Street will treat it as though it is.

[skoalyman]

12. your absolutely right

I especially love this part "trounced analyst expectations" they can't be that ignorant or maybe they are:crazy:

[Algorem]

4. our unitary executive shifting more money to his chinese unitary government cronies

[Historic NY]

5. Yup, spending money on more cheap crap from China don't we all...........

and some wondered where their job went.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/08/arts/television/08kopp.html?_r=1&ref=arts&oref=slogin

<snip>
As “The People’s Republic of Capitalism” illustrates, big American companies like Wal-Mart and Ethan Allen have cut costs by relying on Chinese factories, which in turn allows them to sell lower-priced goods to American consumers. And while it means that some Americans lose jobs to workers overseas — and the series shows the pain of that displacement — even those unemployed workers find themselves shopping for the products made in China and arrayed in budget aisles across this country.
<snip>

[Virginia Dare]

6. The circular firing squad of American society continues...n/t

[kmac3]

7. The rich get richer the poor . . . you know the rest . . .

This only proves it is the "little hard working blue collar people" that are suffering in this sad economy. The prices at Wal-Mart is the only place they can afford to shop! No praises for Wal-Mart from me!

[Spouting Horn]

16. If Wal Mart is the only place

poor people can afford to cho pin, then why do you hate them so much?

I just paid $10 for 90 Lovastatin 20MG pills at Wal Mart. At CVS they're about a dollar a pill.

[Phred42]

8. We KNEW that would happen

No surprise there.

[underpants]

15. I thought that was the actual point

Walmart
buy more gas
dollar stores with whatever is left

[Plucketeer]

9. Isn't that GEAT news!

Maybe when we get next month's war finance allotment from Chinese banks, we could get a little extra so Chimp could send us all another bit of pocket change! Then we could all go to Wal-Mart and give the Chinese reason to smile about their investments.

I'm no Bernanke or other stalwart of finance, but I've been saying for years that a "service economy" is basically a pyramid scheme. With us only USERS and not MAKERS, it's a ladder sitting on air. But it's too late to reverse course. We're fracked and it's only a matter of living out the slow, torturous decline as we let the wealthy (aided by their corporate-owned hypnotizers - the MSM) tell us it's all gonna be OK in the end.

We had a real hope of a candidate (and they weren't wearing pant suits) and as predictable as the sunrise, the hypnotizers sidelined that candidate. BTW, said candidate's picture is to the left of this post.

[onehandle]

10. And our future Chinese masters smile. nt

[slackmaster]

11. They're not getting any of mine

Unfortunately, Bank of America is.

[Vinca]

13. So the Chinese economy got a boost. I'll never figure out how or why

people don't make the connection between jobs here and the purchase of Chinese-made goods they don't need.

[Javaman]

14. And what happens when all the "stimulus checks" are gone?

what will replace americans need for that instant satisfaction of buying something?

how will chinamarts sales be then?

Oh I see a really big shoe on the horizon about to drop.

[PfcHammer]

17. i thought there was gonna be job creation too

assholes claimed something like 160,000 new jobs
created from peanuts give away.

[Kali]

18. walmart sales would be "surging" anyway - it is the only place

many can afford to shop anymore.

[LeftyMom]

20. China got their money back!

:eyes:

[jmowreader]

21. If I was a Wal-Mart store manager, I would be dreading next year...

Not because of the upcoming recession, but because of what all this stimulus money is going to do to my comps.

Check it out: comparative sales--sales this year, compared to the same period last year, is a major metric for every big retailer. This year, Bush put $600 into the hands of every taxpaying American, and a lot of them spent the whole thing at Wal-Mart. Next year, when we have a president, that's not going to happen. Worse: according to corporate, the only reason you didn't make numbers is that you fucked up.