Wal-Mart Threatens to Tank Dow; Boycotts Working?

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Wednesday October 04, 2006 · 6:58 AM PDT

2006/10/04 · 06:58

Hey folks, financial news websites are reporting a drop in Wal-Mart's stock price threatens to reverse recent historic gains in the the Dow Jones Industrial Average. According to CNNMoney.com's premarket report,

The world's No. 1 retailer now says it only saw a 1.3 percent sales rise at stores open a least a year, a closely watched retail measure known as same-store sales. That's near the low-end of its earlier target of a 1 to 3 percent rise, and down from the 1.8 percent increase it announced just this past on Saturday.

Last quarter, weak Wal-Mart performance was assigned to its failure to secure its presence in Germany, a country that managed to resist the siren song of the made-in-China goods and poor-wage services of the retail behemoth.

(More on the flip)

Yahoo Financial softpedals what could be serious trouble for the world's largest retailer as "company specific issues", but could it be that our boycotts finally doing some good? Potentially the word is finally out on Wal-Mart's efforts to undercut American wages by forcing its suppliers to set absurdly low price points for its wares. Is it possible our fellow Americans were appalled by Wal-Mart's announcement this week it would commit even yet still more cuts to its already paltry health-care plan for employees - after years of announcements that Wal-Mart's health care plan has sharply increased costs for public health providers in every state in the Union?

According to the AP, department stores like Penneys (and Sears, which owns Wal-Mart competitor K-Mart) are up; retailer Target's stock price is near its 52-week high. So. Any alternative explanations for what looks like karma finally catching up with Bentonville?

p.s. Read this article in Harper's for more information on what Wal-Mart's strong-arm tactics are doing to the fabric of capitalism itself. A blood-chilling tale of deregulation run awry.

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