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

[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