Wal-Mart: Scenes from the Economy's Front Lines

Wal-mart is like the Bureau of Economic Analyst of retail: It has all the data you wish you had about what's going on in the economy, plus more -- and it has it all in realtime. With that in mind, here are some alternately choice and concerning nuggets from a speech today by the company's president in Los Angeles:

• Credit is declining as a form of payment at Wal-mart. It will be down double-digits this year, he said.
• Spending spikes around pay periods have become much more pronounced, implying that many Wal-mart shoppers are living check-to-check.
• For the first time the company is seeing a paycheck-related spike in purchases of baby formula, suggesting some real teetering out there.

More here.

Comments

[vbierschwale:]

This is what I have been saying all along.

The MAJORITY of the people don't make six figure incomes.
Most make 60,000 or less.
A good many of them make a combined income of 60,000 or less.

What is amazing to me is how many people don't realize that America is two paychecks away from disaster if we don't bring our jobs home.

Read this article that I wrote a while back explaining what a salary of 52,000 per year will cover ====

I've tried everything I can think of to get this information in front of the media with no luck.

I sometimes believe they are ignoring me because they feel that they know what is best for us as a country.
I always feel that they can't see the forest for the tree's.

So, I will try again.

They say this financial crisis is a global crisis, but that is not true.
Yes, ALL of the countries that have been sending their work offshore are hurting.
But if you will look around, you will find that the oil producing nations are not hurting.

Why is this ?

Lets take for instance a figure that says the majority of our country makes 52,000 per year as that is a easy number to work with.
That is a nice round number of 1,000 per week.
Then lets figure that their tax's are 25 % or 250 per week.

So now they have 750 per week disposable income.
Now lets assume that they use one tank of gas per week with an average price of 60 bucks per fillup.
That leaves them with 690 left over to pay bills..

Oops, they have two automobiles.
So that leaves them with 630 left over to pay bills.

Electricity is probably costing them about 350 per month and a phone and a second line and dsl is probably another 100, so we're talking 450 per month.
Now we need to add in 100 per month if they use propane or natural gas, so we're up to 550 per month in utilities.

550 * 12 = 126.92 per week in utilities, so lets make that 130 so we can keep the numbers easy to figure.

Oops, they're down to 500 per week in disposable income.
Now their house is probably costing them a minimum of 1,000 per month to rent or to buy, so thats 230 per week which now leaves them at 270 per week left.

We havent figured groceries and thats probably 100 per week.

So now we have 170 per week disposable income.
Problem is, a hot water heater goes out, and that blows the remainder...

Folks, I don't care who you are, or how much you're making.
Lesson's of the last few years have taught me that the majority of people are two paychecks away from disaster.

Now on to the meat of my discussion.

Our country takes many millions to run our country.
This revenue comes from all of us making an average of 52,000 per year and for close to 200 years we have done great.
It is only since the late 80's when we started sending our jobs overseas that this crisis started brewing and its brewing because other countries are following our lead.

If you send our jobs overseas and our national average falls from 52,000 per year to 32,000 per year you will need an additional 40 to 50% of taxpayers to make the same amount of payments to the IRS so that we can run our country at the level that we are currently used too.

In summary, we have virtually no disposable income anymore and all of us, if we have jobs are worried about losing our jobs, so for the first time in our lives, if we have additional money, we're holding on to it.

Something has to give.

Now my question is, why can't our so called experts see this ?

Virgil
www.KeepAmericaAtWork....

2008 Oct 22 12:02 PM

[what401K:]

@ Virgil:
Great article but I think there is something you overlooked....
You left this 52K family with 170.00 per week "disposable income". Those two cars are (probably) not more than 2 years old which means they owe 600.00 per month in car payments. Then there is the auto insurance at 75.00 per month, per car. That leaves them with: -3.08 per week.
Well, at least some Americans are doing well, Wall Street and the banks will have their hard earned bonus again this year!

2008 Oct 22 12:57 PM

[sumosama:]

good concept but you WAY overestimate the taxes paid. In your scenario, for a family of 4 earning 52k, they would pay little in the way of federal taxes (other than SS/FICA). They would likely pay 3k in federal income taxes and half that in state taxes if that.

2008 Oct 23 11:30 AM