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Retail

Alms For The Poor: Wal-Mart (WMT) August Sales Up

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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WmtWal-Mart’s (WMT) US same store sales rose 3% in August. Analysts expected about half that growth rate.

The Wal-Mart news is almost certainly a sign the the middle class is joining those below the poverty line in making the huge retailer their first and only place to shop.

It is also a signal that the recession may be deepening. Wal-Mart’s "everyday low prices" allow shoppers to stretch a buck. The fact that it is not fashionable to visit the stores is left by the wayside as consumers run out of money.

The only cloud in Wal-Mart’s silver lining was international sales. Revenue from overseas was only up 13% for August. The number has been rising at 17% year-to-date.

August global revenue at WMT rose almost 9% to $30.7 billion. Clearly the law of large numbers does not currently apply to Wal-Mart. Many smaller chains are losing customers and losing money.

Being the low cost provided sometimes has its advantages.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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