Attention

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent our advertisers

Friday, October 16, 2015

Wal-Mart Stock Tumbles

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. suffered its worst stock decline in more than 27 years after predicting a drop in annual profit, underscoring the giant retailer’s struggles to reignite growth.

Earnings will decrease 6 percent to 12 percent in fiscal 2017, which ends in January of that year, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company said at its investor day on Wednesday. Analysts had estimated a gain of 4 percent on average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The outlook was “far worse than anyone expected,” Charles Grom, an analyst with Sterne Agee & Leach, said in a note to clients.

Wal-Mart has been pumping money into its workforce and e-commerce capabilities in a bid to reignite stagnant sales growth -- investments that will continue in fiscal 2017. The company raised its base employee wages to $9 an hour in April and plans to boost hourly pay to at least $10 next year. The effort, combined with an expanded training program, added about $1 billion in costs this year and $1.5 billion next year.

More here

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awww... too bad.

Walmart customer service sucks.

They scam you with their pricing- many times I've seen the larger-quantity packages of items cost MORE per unit than smaller ones.. they expect you to assume the larger one is less per item. I've seen prices in Sam's be much higher for the same item than in Walmart, based on that same assumption.

For many years they've used a predatory pricing model designed to drive local competitors out of business, and they've dictated to vendors what they will pay for items once they become their largest buyer.

I only go there now when I have to. I hate the place.

Anonymous said...

More competition would be great for their customers. I only go there when I know they have the best price on what I need. I was an independent vendor for 12 years and I hated dealing with them. One week you displays for your sale items were canceled because the manager on duty just felt like it. The next time your items were on sale they would call my company and demand unrealistic amounts of products. The flip flopping made it hard to please them when it came to this example because you never knew where they stood. I hope a company or 2 figures out how to compete with them. That would force them to raise their standards like cleaning, customer service, and their quality of employed workers.

Anonymous said...

I hate Walmart. I hope they lose a lot of money. And, the writer above is right. Customer service SUCKs.

Anonymous said...

Couldn't have happened to a better company!!!!
Joyous news! Absolutely hate this company!
Not the Walmart that Sam Walton founded!