WalMart

[DUD]

Don't know if this is true or not, but some awesome numbers. Bill


This should boggle your mind!!

1 . At Wal-Mart, Americans spend $36,000,000 every hour of every day.

2 . This works out to $20,928 profit every minute!

3. Wal-Mart will sell more from January 1 to St. Patrick's Day (March 17th)
than Target sells all year.

4. Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot + Kroger + Target + Sears +
Costco + K-Mart combined.

5. Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people and is the largest private employer.

6. Wal-Mart is the largest company in the history of the World.

7. Wal-Mart now sells more food than Kroger & Safeway combined, and keep in mind they did this in only 15 years.

8. During this same period, 31 Supermarket chains sought bankruptcy (including Winn-Dixie).

9. Wal-Mart now sells more food than any other store in the world.

10. Wal-Mart has approx 3,900 stores in the USA of which 1,906 are Super Centers; this is 1,000 more than it had 5 years ago.

11. This year, 7.2 billion different purchasing experiences will occur at a Wal-Mart store. (Earth's population is approximately 6.5 billion.)

12. 90% of all Americans live within 15 miles of a Wal-Mart.

[mschrank]

Not sure if those are true numbers, either, but I guess it wouldn't surprise me. They seem to have taken over the retail world.

We have a small Mal-Wart here in our small town. They tried opening one of their supersize stores here a couple years back, but we successfully fought them off.

PBS had a great documentary on the company awhile back....really eye-opening.

[Ed62]

Those numbers are nothing short of amazing! My wife won't shop there, and I rarely shop anywhere, so if they depended on us, they would have been bankrupt long ago.

Ed

[MilDoc]

Yeah, one of those things I kick myself for. Years ago when they had their IPO I was going to buy 1,000 shares. Didn't. Regret it. Could have retired by now!

[JR]

As usual with this sort of thing, the facts do not support the claims. It's too bad, because Wal-mart is big enough to support a lot of big claims.

Wal-Mart stores domestic gross sales are ~$230B. $36M per hour would come to ~$315B.

Wal-mart gross profit is about 2%. Working backward from the inflated claim of $315B, would result in $12k/min.

JR

[Black wallnut]

Just last weekend I watched a documentary on HBO or Cinimax that although filled with anti-Walmat propaganda was rather eye opening. Years ago we shopped at Walmart. It made sense then and may have saved us money. Since we moved there is no Walmart close by so we rarely shop there. I doubt that I will ever shop at a Walmart again if given any other choice.

[crokett]

Walmart has 2 stores within 15 miles of us. Target/etc have none. I read somewhere that Walmart saves the average family ~2500.00 a year on groceries. I asked my wife how much she saves on groceries each week buying them at Walmart vs her other options in our area and that 2500.00 estimate is a little under the actual number.

[BobSch]

I've been in our local Wally-World once, and I doubt I'll ever go back. Crowded aisles, rude staff. Bah.

[havighurst]

You would think that with all that profit, they could afford to provide all of their employees with affordable health insurance. I read that approx. 25% of all Wal-mart employees rely on Medicaid for their health insurance - which is supported by our tax dollars. I guess the rich really do get richer.

[Tom Slick]

how about the fact that the heirs to Sam Walton's fortune became some of the richest people in the world just from their inheritance!

walmart's CEOs' salary is in the $5 million range and they have gone though 4 in 5 years.
Costco's CEO limits his salary to $400,000 and stock options, they've had the same one for their entire history.
The average costco employee makes $40k a year with benefits after 4 years.
The average walmart employee doesn't make half of that and no benefits after 4 years due to the majority of their employees being "part time."

[germdoc]

I don't often go to local WalMart superstores cause they're too danged big. I've lost kids in there and almost went to the extent of having their pictures printed on milk cartons.

I prefer stores that are more manageable, like Target and even Kmart.

[ragswl4]

My wife and I buy some items at WalMart but it is not an every week stop for us. Mainly toys, pet items and cleaning supplies. We don't like their food choices and my wife likes to shop around so she buys sale items elsewhere and probably beats their prices and I believe better quality.

I still don't get the Walmart bashing about benifits, low salary and part time employees. If Walmart were not employing these folks would they be better off unemployed with little to no income? Sure it would be great if their employees had great benifits but that's not the business model and anyone who is disatisfied with it doesn't have to work there or shop there. Seems like a lot of folks don't give a rats behind about it or they wouldn't be so successful. Seems like a bunch of whining to me.

[Tom Slick]

the point is other companies that are in a similar market with similar jobs can pay well and still turn a great profit. I agree that if your job doesn't pay what it should then move on.


here is a staggering number, for every 1 mile per gallon Wal-mart's truck fleet gains the company saves $1 billion. Wal-mart may end up leading the "green" side of doing business because their economies of scale are so large that pennys turn into millions.

[chopnhack]

I do not appreciate the WM, I read some documentary on their business practice and I do believe them to be evil!
MHO

[LCHIEN]

y'all say one thing but when i see items posted on the bargain alerts you guys all go gaga over low prices. That only tells me one thing that WalMart is going to be around for a long time if they continue to be a low priced provider.

Costco may pay employees more and the CEO less but Walmart is the winner when it comes to shareholders equity/value/returns... What does that tell you?