Walmart CEO: Our Customers Are 'Running Out Of Money'

CNN Money:

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Wal-Mart's core shoppers are running out of money much faster than a year ago due to rising gasoline prices, and the retail giant is worried, CEO Mike Duke said Wednesday.

Read the whole story: CNN Money

Comments

[zzlash]

09:47 PM on 05/17/2011

Walmart is a perfect example of why employee unions need to be revived.

[baileywick]

05:49 PM on 05/02/2011

Hopefully, Walmart customers are running out of Walmart.

[Spiggy]

04:23 PM on 05/02/2011

Hopefully it is not a case of running out of Money but a case of they are starting to support corporations that actually care for the well being of this country. Wal Mart is nothing more then a disease.

[rukiddingmerightnow]

04:23 PM on 05/02/2011

aha - they are finally catching on. If the people have no money, there is no one to buy stuff. The luxury goods companies aren't suffering, however.

[Arts4u]

04:55 PM on 05/02/2011

Not true.... they're all shifting their attention to the Chinese market and any and all growth is coming from there.

[rukiddingmerightnow]

05:09 PM on 05/02/2011

Not sure what part of what I said you think is not true but the chinese market with their low wages is not provide sufficient growth for these companies. And growth in china is already starting to slow.

[2garen]

03:43 PM on 05/02/2011

Walmart CEO: Our Customers Are 'Running Out Of Money'

Walmart wasn't worried about their employees running out of money when they decided to pay them less than an livable wage and expect the American taxpayer to subsidize them by not supplying medical insurance to their own employees.

[travelaholic]

03:12 PM on 05/02/2011

This Walmart story is a symptom of something greater that's going on. I fear an end to the middle-class is possible the way that we are going. But I just gave blood, and I likely have low sugar levels...

[Arts4u]

04:56 PM on 05/02/2011

This problem has been talked about in the media for the last five years... for some reason, many didn't take it seriously enough - including Walmart.

[Miss Muffett]

02:39 PM on 05/02/2011

Yes, heaven forbid Walmart's board of directors feel a pinch when paying their dock fees for their various yachts.
 
These people are obviously just so detached from the real world where the rest of us live struggling, trying to make ends meet. Walmart benefited, intially, very much so from the recession.
Many of us who vowed never to shop at Walmart ended up forced to do so simply because of the astronomical rise in the cost of groceries and gasoline.
 
Additionally, Walmart can thank themselves for the corporate mentality of the 39 hour "part-time" employment structure that the rest of corporate America has readily adopted.
 
 
When will corporate America learn? It's trickle UP economics that works. THAT is what will put money in their pockets. I've been saying for years now, since the onset of this recession that nothing is going to be fixed until we see a REAL increase in wages. If you give the middle class money, WE GIVE IT RIGHT BACK!!

[Arts4u]

04:59 PM on 05/02/2011

There is a reason that Americans have expected their incomes to remain stagnant or decline, increasingly lower each year since 2001. When corporations have been increasingly eliminating middle management positions, relying more on freelance consulting positions and cutting back on staff consistently since 2001, the scale will eventually tip to the negative. This is what has happened. Coupled with rapidly increasing basic costs of living, there simply is not a whole lot left to purchase with.

[Miss Muffett]

12:32 PM on 05/03/2011

Agreed.
 
It seems like every week it gets harder and harder to stretch a dollar. And eventually, the scale has to tip back in our favor. As the article stated, since Walmart is a major indicator of the health of the economy and the fact that even Walmart's consumers can't afford to spend their usual amount of money each month tells me that pretty soon, corporations are going to figure this out.
 
The fewer people you employ at decent wages = the fewer people with money to spend on your products. They're cost-savings themselves out of product purchasers.
 

[bnv69]

01:29 PM on 05/18/2011

Get it right! Anything over 32 hours is full-time at Walmart.

[J0E1]

02:12 PM on 05/02/2011

Can't say I care.

[TBrennan]

01:55 PM on 05/02/2011

That's what happens when too many of your customers are also your, underpaid, exploited employees. The irony is sweet.

[2garen]

03:43 PM on 05/02/2011

touche!

[JoeyDee2]

01:10 PM on 05/02/2011

The irony here is hysterically funny. For some time Walmart has been known as the model for low-wage, low or no-benefit jobs. Guess what? It’s caught on in corporate America like wildfire: The Walmart business model. If we’re not outsourcing and we’re not hiring FT, then we’ll hire part-timers. Even colleges and universities do it: hire part-time faculty at Walmart wages, no benefits. They may make $15k/year, teach 9 courses across three schools per semester to make ends meet. There are even stories about some of these part-time faculty on food stamps.

You know the economy’s bad when people don’t have money to spend at the Great American Junk Store. So, Walmart executives, you have the nerve to bemoan your shrinking profits when you have contributed a great share to the trend to impoverish working Americans.

The concept of "Walmart" is a stain on our culture and values.

[cay12]

08:42 PM on 05/01/2011

What will happen if Medicaid and Medicare are gutted? There go Walmart's hearth insurance plans.

[Arts4u]

06:32 PM on 05/01/2011

What's the matter Walmart? Is trickle down economics not quite working for you?

Boy, what a bunch of whiners.

[TMc73]

05:42 PM on 05/01/2011

Wal-Mart: Our shoppers are 'running out of money'

If this isn't the definition of Irony, I don't know what is.

Not entriely Wal- Marts fault so much as the dismatling of America's manufacturing and industrial base through 'Free Trade' agreements such as NAFTA and GATT.

The middle class of the United States is being hollowed out by short sighted 'trade agreements' that force people to buy at bottom dollar stores such as Wal Mart just to make ends meet.

[kkmousse]

03:33 PM on 05/01/2011

I like hearing from people that know of family that work at Walmart. The company helps them out and works with their schedules so that they can go to school and what not. However even though they do offer medical insurance. You can not afford to pay for it on your wages. Just do not get sick you will get fired for not chanting in the morning pep-rally.

[EvolveorPerish]

11:53 AM on 05/01/2011

The funny thing is, the Walton family and those in the upper echelons of the company think that they are unfairly criticized and resent being told that they have unfair market and labor practices. They truly don't get the moral bankruptcy they and other large companies have brought to our democracy with outsourcing and marketing techniques that are sucking every last penny from the consumers.

Like Jaime Dimon, they think they are being "picked on"; they are so divorced from normal society, so above us, that they can not comprehend the damage they do and feel no responsibility for anything held against them. They really think they are good guys. Ha!

[Arts4u]

06:33 PM on 05/01/2011

Walmart would love for the illegals to work for them. Pay $5 an hour, no benefits.... their idea of heaven.