Wal-Mart Earnings Topped $10 Billion in 2004

[LiviaOlivia]

The New York Times
February 17, 2005
Wal-Mart Earnings Topped $10 Billion in 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 11:36 a.m. ET

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, announced Thursday it posted a 16.2 percent increase in profits for its fourth quarter, beating Wall Street expectations. Its earnings for the full year topped $10 billion for the first time.

Wal-Mart president and chief executive Lee Scott called it a solid performance but added "we can do better."

The Bentonville-based retailer earned $3.16 billion, or 75 cents a share, for the three months ended Jan. 31, up from $2.72 billion, or 63 cents a share, a year ago. Wal-Mart's overall revenue rose to $83.02 billion from $75.19 billion a year earlier.

~snip~

Scott said the company is making changes, though Wal-Mart still faces pressure from health insurance and other costs.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Earns-Wal-Mart.html?hp&ex=1108702800&en=d0ac26362887c4cd&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[GOPBasher]

1. What an evil corporation. UGH!

:puke:

[whosinpower]

2. Speaks volumes when we consider

That they shut down the unionized store in Quebec citing non- profitability........

[NC_Nurse]

3. Not from me.

They don't get one red cent from me. :)

[applegrove]

4. What was the welfare et al subsidy for their employees to survive?

[durablend]

5. Lee Scott called it a solid performance but added "we can do better."

It'll NEVER be enough until they run everyone else out of business and have everyone working for peanuts (literally)

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

6. But their 4th quarter was ONLY 1.5%....................

The company saw sales at U.S. stores open at least a year rise 1.5 percent in the quarter and 3.3 percent for the fiscal year. That was at the low end of Wal-Mart's projection of gains of between 3 percent and 5 percent at the start of the year.

It looks like their growth did slow in the last quarter and some previous reports had listed those sales were mostly due to purchasing food items at Walmart stores.

I'm not so convinced that things are quite as peachy-keen as they report. The 'boycott Walmart' and 'Buy Blue' movement really picked up momentum AFTER the election and therefore could explain the 1.5 percent rise in the last quarter of 04.

[Filimon]

7. outsourcing / profits

I have a request:

Is there anyway to research the trade practices of US companies who have shifted much of their supply chain offshore?

I wonder how much of it is done to remain competitive (as they claim and may in fact be just a harsh reality), and how much of it is done to make windfall profits.

I lived in Russia for many years and most companies there had a simple scheme. The factory, smelter, coal mine, oil company, etc., would set up an offshore company in Cyprus for example. It would owned by the directors brother/cousin for example. The factory would sell its products at/below cost to the offshore company and keep its books barely above water (borderline bankruptcy to avoid taxes), and the offshore company would resell the product at or near market prices, leaving an insane amount of profit offshore in the personal accounts of the robber baron oligarchs. It is not a complicated process.

Now how many of these US companies use a similar process? They establish an offshore trading company who purchases the goods from China, for example, at $0.50/unit, then buys them from trading company at $20.00/unit, and sells on market for $25. Minus expenses, operating costs, advertizing, etc., the profits for US company are modest. But the offshore company RAKES it in.

Can someone run this to ground?

[GroverH]

8. I worked for these lovely folks once

We used to get regular anti-union speeches from assistant managers at shift meetings. They always claimed their "open door policy," where you could supposedly take your grievance to any level of management, was much better than a union where you had to "pay someone to speak for you." :puke: Overtime was forbidden; if you went even one minute over your scheduled time, you had to cut it on another day (clock in in late, leaving early, or shortening your lunch) before the end of the pay period.

We'd also watch videos from corporate HQ where execs would talk about how democrats (Bustamente in CA, e.g.) and union people were lying about the company, and Wal-Mart just wanted to get back to the business of "serving our customers."

The whole experience was rather like how I imagine being in a cult is. There'd be pictures of, and quotes from, "Mr. Sam" (Walton) all over the break room and offices. There was also a copy of his autobiography laying around in the break room. The condition of the spine indicated that no one ever cracked it.