Wal-Mart CEO: I See A 'Lot of Stress,' Slow Recovery for U.S.

bloomberg.com:

The U.S. economy won't "just bounce out and come back" from the current recession, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mike Duke said in an interview on NBC's Today show.

Consumers battered by unemployment are buying cheaper cuts of meat, spending more on vitamins to avoid trips to the doctor and buying flat-panel televisions instead of taking vacations, Duke said today.

Read the whole story: bloomberg.com

Comments

[inorbit]

WalMart has done a lot to set the stage for this recession by driving so many manufacturing jobs out of America.

[Sundialsvc4]

The Wal-Mart CEO's opinions are undoubtedly more a reflection of this company's justifiable worries than a reflection of the American economy. Wal-Mart "drank the kool-aid in great, gulping draughts" that said that the way to success was to dominate every tiny podunk market they could find to enter ... squeezing out local merchants, building small stores, and then abandoning those properties to build bigger and bigger "mega-stores." They've tried to dominate the local markets for food, necessities, services and luxuries all at the same time. I can only imagine how much debt they've taken on to do that, and where they've squirreled all that debt away.

But... let's look at the merchandise. By and large, it's embarrassing. Nothing's worse than "a cheap cut of meat," an already-broken toy, or an out-of-place picture of a fashion model, all viewed under glaring (but cheap...) mercury-vapor lights in a nearly-empty store at 3 o'clock in the morning. Where can you get better stuff, for much less (so much for "Always!")? Target. Sears. Amazon. The JC Penney Catalog.

Wal-Mart? Mr. Wall would be furious if he could see what's left of his company now.

[sparkey]

Look around in other stores. You'll see that there prices are lower than Wal-mart. The only thing I've seen in there stores that is any cheaper is milk, and not by much. Wal-mart tried to run everybody out of business and then started to raise their prices. It has started to backf*re on them. It seems like the only ones who shop there now are the illegal aliens who would get more noticed in a smaller store. I've ssaved more money by shopping in other stores. Wal-mart does not have cheaper prices anymore.

[Haditup2here]

It was only a matter until time that sales in Walmart drops. Just wait until more people start participating in community gardens, begin to shop more so at thrift stores, and downgrade on their shopping for Christmas and Independence Day.

Besides Walmart is not all that cheap when it comes to certain items of food anymore.

[ekoorb]

It's about time that they reap what they sow. Import from China, offer part-time, poverty level wages, and expect government to pay for everything that manufacturing wages used to fund.

[Chicago48]

Well yeh. We consumers are tapped out. I have no disposable income. Single, babyboomer, self-supporting working two jobs. Living in the big city. The taxes went up, the utilities went up, the transit cost went up....and my wages have flatlined. Don't expect a lot of disposable spending from me.