Rhetoric v. Reality: Wal-Mart’s Holiday Sales

There’s more to Wal-Mart’s holiday sales numbers than meets the eye. A new Wal-Mart Watch fact sheet examines the reality behind Wal-Mart’s holiday sales this year. From Rhetoric v. Reality: A Brief Holiday “Success” Cannot Mask Wal-Mart’s Pattern of Failures:

Despite some random, recent assertions that Wal-Mart is on the right track and may outperform Target for the 2007 holiday season, Wal-Mart’s business model remains unsustainable. Since 2000, Wal-Mart’s pattern of strategic mistakes has led to flat stock performance, anemic same-store sales growth, reduced U.S. expansion, reputation problems and lack of confidence in the company’s leadership. To misconstrue a single, albeit successful holiday season’s sales result in the midst of an economic downturn into an indication that Wal-Mart is on the path to a turnaround is a serious mistake. The following information measures rhetoric against reality.

RHETORIC: “There’s no doubt that Wal-Mart is back,” said Craig Johnson, president of retail consultancy Customer Growth Partners. [CNN Money, 12/28/07]
FACT: Craig Johnson is a former partner at Interpublic, which counts the Martin Agency as one of its members. According to a Reuters article from early last year, the acquisition of Wal-Mart’s estimated $580 million dollar advertising account caused Interpublic’s stock to surge “as much as 4 percent with word of the decision that keeps the Wal-Mart account with the world’s third-largest advertising group, even though it will be handled by a different agency within the company.” [Reuters, 1/12/07]

Click here to download the full fact sheet.

Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Tuesday, January 08, 2008