WalMart just announced reduced sales, attributed to a reduction is sales of higher value items (electronics, etc) and a focus by consumers on low cost essentials.

People are broke.

BRAD

To clarify, poor people are broke.

People that start to do better and have a little money -- stop shopping at WalMart...

Amazon revenue for 2024Q4 was UP 10% from the same quarter last year.

WalMart being down could actually mean the opposite: some people have more money and don't shop at WalMart any more.

Sometimes it's difficult to believe the numbers.

Doctors go by numbers and get things wrong a lot.

John, you stated, "People that start to do better and have a little money -- stop shopping at WalMart."

www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna192872

I read an article recently that cited Aldi's growth as a major stress point for Walmart. Apparently, Aldi is cheaper on groceries than Walmart and people are noticing.

My kid told me about the quiet times that Walmart has. No store music or intercoms until 10am.

If I have to grab a few items for whatever reason I try and go then. Less of the scummy people there at that time as well. They are still sleeping I guess?

Found out from the other kid that Meijer does the same thing.

Way off topic. Thursday I went into Walmart for some things. I had an appointment at 10am so I went there first. Got out of my truck and saw a man in the distance walking up the lane.

I could hear jingles from his direction. I assumed it was his keys clipped to a belt loop.

When I got inside I grabbed a cart. He caught up and walked by. Then I saw the cause of the sound. It was his face piercings. He had so many loops and dangling metal things attached to his face it was nearly amazing. No chance he could sneak up on anybody.

That reminds me of the time I was checking out of the commercial desk of Home Depot. The cashier girl looked like she was about 14. I could see she had a safety pin holding her eye glasses together. I kindly said to her "at Walgreens they sell a kit with screw and screwdriver for your glasses".

Think about it, those "People of Walmart" are our residents!

My town has 2 SUper WalMarts. Both are clean, nice, well stocked.

I have a few bucks and we shop there.

Think about it, those "People of Walmart" are our residents!

My town has 2 SUper WalMarts. Both are clean, nice, well stocked.

I have a few bucks and we shop there.

Our Super-Walmart is 5 miles from our house. Target (new) is about 20 with many lights in between.

There's a supercenter near me along with a bunch of other stores. I usually get bedding for the rooming house from there and gardening supplies. It took them the longest to set up self checkout and I read here recently they've encountered a lot of shrinkage due to self checkout theft. I'm not sure if that an issue locally, but if they were to eliminate it, I would no longer be a customer. Prior to self checkout, the lines were very bad and I'm usually getting only a few items. There's a Target across the street and that's where I'd probably begin going.

Wife will not pre-order anything that spoils easily. The few times she did she got the worst of the worst.

Seems that the pickers are not that picky.

I tell her she should order all the regular stuff and have them bring it to the car, then she can go in and pick the fruits, veggies and meat on her own.

I don't like the crowds at Walmart, especially the one close to us. Due to theft, they have locked several products. My friend stopped shopping there because of that. Hubby no longer allows me to shop that Walmart or that area alone. I found a Walmart close to where she and I meet for lunch. Once I told her I did not have her experience there, she checked it out and will shop at that Walmart when we meet for lunch.

I shop several stores to get the products we want and to keep our costs low. I determined the areas we frequent and go to on occasion, their prices and products we use. I keep a running list of what we need from each store. I meet friends for lunch so shop my list for that area before or after.

Some Menards have great prices on food items, cards, and health-related items. Aldi has products and great prices. Their produce section is my favorite.

My favorite grocery store is Woodman's; their produce is the absolute freshest and reasonable. The corn on the cob I bought this week was so fresh, I swear I was buying fresh ear off a stalk at a farm.

Join WalMart's "club" and get free delivery!

I like to watch financial articles to consider how MY resident's habits are shifting.

Gotta stay in touch. Ear the ground.

A tiny change might be that we are renting more and more appliances. Partly because we now OFFER appliances, but partly because they cannot afford to buy or even rent thru the chain rental stores.

Just Tim: That article about how wealthier people are shopping there is interesting. It is from two days BEFORE their latest announcement that Brad is talking about where they said things were down.

In that article you linked, it even says that we'll have to see when their report comes out two days after the article of those wealthier people are actually "sticking around" or not.

Well, based on the new report, it sounds like they aren't sticking around -- or, at least, not enough. Walmart is saying that consumers are "pulling back on spending" and that "T's tariffs on China and other countries are threatening their low-price model."

They did acknowledge that they gained some market share in the group of people that make over $100k -- but it clearly wasn't enough to offset other declines.

Finally, Walmart makes 60% of their money from grocery sales -- but the costs are going up. Meaning their COSTS are going up. This generally means that people without much money -- who often shop at Walmart -- are probably still only able to PAY the same amount for groceries. So they are buying less (while spending the same amount of money) -- and Walmart's profit on groceries is therefore going down (since their costs went up).

Also, this whole thread is a little "off", at best.

Brad started it by saying this:

"WalMart just announced reduced sales, attributed to a reduction is sales of higher value items (electronics, etc) and a focus by consumers on low cost essentials."

That simply isn't accurate. They didn't announce "reduced sales" at this point. They announced that their 2025 sales and profit forecast was lower than expected. They still expect to INCREASE SALES. Just a little less than originally expected. This is more of a stock market thing than some big analysis on shopping.

Note that, in the same announcement, Walmart announced that SALES ROSE 4.1% DURING THE PAST QUARTER.

So, again, Brad says that Walmart announced reduced sales. They didn't. He's misunderstanding the announcement. They announced the sales were up 4.1% for the last quarter and that they expect them to continue to rise for the NEXT quarter, but slightly less than originally anticipated (for various reasons including grocery prices, TV purchases, and so on).

Stock market voodoo. I'm always baffled by the market reaction to "We made a profit, we increased sales, we just didn't increase as MUCH as we HOPED." Stock tanks.

It's like government agency budgets. If the agency doesn't spend all the money allotted to them in a single year, they MIGHT not get an INCREASE next year. They will still get their money but maybe not as much of an INCREASE year over year.

WMH-I never understood the stock market exactly as you stated,i will stick with rentals and flips.

John- how does Walmart determine someone is wealthy or poor? not like they have anyones tax returns,do they even offer a credit card to see what someone says they earn?

No idea. But my guess is that they have a pretty good idea through various means. I think they know their customers.

Personally, I shop less at WalMart these days than I did 5 years ago.

1) They were one of the first to insist you wear a mask to shop in their store. Ain't happening with me.

2) Went to Picking up stuff that I ordered on-line. Worked OK for a while, but the longer it went on, the worse they were about filling my order, and had trouble picking the order up because they want you to "check in" in their app -- little bit more than I can handle. They don't answer the phone inside when you call. Had to almost physically trip a wandering clerk in the parking lot to get my order.

3) They forced shoppers to use self checkout, by not having any human cashiers. It's bad enough I had to go around a large store trying to find things they kept moving around so you had to go up and down just about every aisle to find what you needed. The checkout area was a zoo, no room to work, and the stupid machine kept yattering at me to "put the item in the bag". To add insult to injury, they wanted to check your cart over as you wheeled it out, like you were a criminal. If they are so afraid of this little ole grandma stealing stuff, they should provide human cashiers.

4) Found out Amazon can just about fill most of my needs, and they deliver to my home. Plus with the Subscribe and Save feature, I save money, because I get a discount of approximately 15% on most items I use regularly.

Our local Meijer is great for groceries, and they almost always have human cashiers. You can do the self checkout if you want, but I don't want. Plus their meat and produce is much better than WalMart (I had quit buying those items BEFORE Covid at WalMart anyway).

Our Meijer just went thru a complete overhaul.

It is horrible now.

If you want to use the self checkouts you have to walk down a narrow aisle to get there. Of course they have items in the aisle for sale so you get stuck waiting on someone to decide what candy bar they really want.

Then when you go thru the regular checkout they removed the carousel. So now they are supposed to have two people at each register. One to scan and one to pack. Guess what, they never have enough employees. So the person scanning has to stop, walk back to pack and then start scanning again.

I just start packing the stuff on my own. Might as well be at the self checkouts at that point, except I don't get flagged for scanning and moving wrong. Then you have to wait on a person to come review the footage and let you continue.

Our Meijer has had those new self checkout lines for a year or so now and I don't mind it at all. Line moves fast. (I don't think I've ever had to wait more than a few seconds if someone stopped in front of me to grab a candy bar or something -- they are all before you get to the turn, so it really doesn't back up the line much, IMO.)

I greatly prefer the self-checkout -- and I like the new Meijer design for it.

Maybe Michigan residents think ahead?

I have, more than once, had to stop and wait for someone to decide which snack they wanted. Have even had a person with a cart try and back up because they decided what they wanted was behind them.

Grab your Funyuns from the big aisle and let me get my stuff bought.

Maybe it is a little different there or something. And I didn't explain myself well.

Here, it goes along all of the candy/chips choices first and then you get to a turn before you're waiting for the next available self-checkout (and there are like 15 of them, so it goes pretty quick). 3-4 people fit in that corner section where there are no choices -- they are just waiting for the next station to open.

So, here, even if someone stops for a little bit to decide on chips, it doesn't matter because there are still 3-4 people ahead of them in the corner waiting for their turn. So, sure, maybe a little space opens between them as the corner people go down from 3-4 to 1-2 -- but you're still really no further behind in line. Once they get their Funyuns, they move forward again and we're exactly where we would have been. :)

I guess the only exception would be if there was literally no one waiting to check out -- it is just open -- and someone stops in front of you. But, that would be really rare here. Usually there are at least a few people in line.

I go as early as possible to help avoid the crowds. That is when I have been caught waiting for a person to make a decision.

But I get what you are saying, and the layout seems the same.

Local WM changed theirs as well. Added more self lines then cut half of them off. They are literally roped off. So people wait in line there as well. At least it is an open area so you aren't suck in an aisle.

Don't get me started with the people in the fat-man scooters that must stop perpendicular to the items they are looking at.

Bend your neck a couple times and save me the hassle. Better yet, get up and walk for your tasty sugar snacks. Maybe it will help you lose some weight.

John is right.

What I read was an AI SUMMARY of the WalMart article.

Better wording would be WM is increasing sales, (as EVERY business must do), just falling short of what they hoped for.

And then I read where they are trying to boost volume by targeting $100,000 income consumers.

I thinks Sam's Club and Costco are already there.

All in, does this tell us anything about OUR consumers (residents) and what they are doing with their money?

BRAD