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WAL-MART AND THE ‘POORING OF AMERICA’
I’m not sure where the phrase “Pooring of America” came from, but it’s perfect to explain Wal-Mart’s effect on working families. Seeking Alpha ponders why Wal-Mart and McDonald’s are doing so well right now.

What are McDonald’s and Wal-Mart Telling Us? [Seeking Alpha]

I am very intriqued by our top 2 choices for the “Pooring of America” trend - Walmart (WMT) and McDonalds (MCD) - what exactly are the charts above telling us?  If we are to enter a long drawn-out recession, which I have believed, these seem to be screaming buys here. The only question is credit - how does a lack of credit potentially hurt both. They are not expanding a ton, in the U.S. at least - perhaps with Wal-mart it’s financing of inventory, but I cannot wrap my mind around this behavior.

Wal-Mart gets downgraded while stock up in 2008 amid the turmoil [BloggingStocks]

Will Wal-Mart weather the storm? To a point, it already is. Sure, all retailers are expected to have a dismal holiday season this winter, but Wal-Mart will do better than the competition. It has more stores, more pricing leverage and more wherewithal to hold customers hostage with lower prices and inventory turns at a time when it’s needed most. Perhaps we’ll see WMT return to the $60/share level by Thanksgiving—if not sooner.

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This article originally appeared on the Huffington Post.

“Wal-Mart Moms” or “Wal-Mart Women” are the new “it” demographic this election cycle. That may be good news for Wal-Mart shoppers, but it is not good news for Wal-Mart.

Like soccer moms and security moms in prior elections, pollsters believe that Wal-Mart Moms will play a key role in choosing the next President. Wal-Mart executives have promoted this idea, even releasing their own poll about “Wal-Mart Moms.” Led by Leslie Dach, executive vice president for corporate affairs and government relations and a former Democratic strategist, the company wants to believe that the courting of Wal-Mart Moms by the presidential candidates places Wal-Mart on an untouchable political pedestal. This is foolish thinking on Wal-Mart’s part.

The values of an average Wal-Mart Mom are not Wal-Mart’s values. In fact, their values are in direct conflict. The more Wal-Mart encourages Wal-Mart Moms to vote, the more it endangers the “values” that the company depends on for its business model to succeed. An organized voting bloc of Wal-Mart Women may very well demand change, but it will not be the change that Wal-Mart wants.

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Blogger Jessica Smith is one of 11 moms Wal-Mart selected for a new campaign targeting female shoppers. As a blogger for the company, Jessica weighs in on everything from diapers to politics.

If anyone deserves to be called a “Wal-Mart Mom,” it’s Jessica. She’s a mom who actually writes for Wal-Mart about many of the issues concerning middle-class mothers today. Why does this matter? From a post on JessicaKnows.com earlier today:

Ever since Sarah Palin was tapped to be John McCain’s running mate, the media classified Sarah Palin’s likely voter-base as being the “Walmart Moms”.  At first I chuckled at this broad generalization.  Then, as more and more assertions of this assumption showed up in my Google Alerts, I started to get a little peeved.  Here I am, my picture and profile on Walmart.com, making it pretty explicit that I’m a “Walmart Mom”.  But…the problem is?

I don’t relate even one iota to Sarah Palin.

“Wal-Mart Moms” are the sought-after demographic in this year’s presidential election, and pundits on all sides are desperately trying to to understand working-class women’s views on the issues. Wal-Mart itself even conducted a political survey of its shoppers last week, injecting itself further into the presidential election. But when one of its own rails against assumptions about “Wal-Mart Moms, “ perhaps that category needs to be redefined. Is there really a “Wal-Mart Moms” demographic? Or are these voters united by something broader?

And perhaps most importantly - if Wal-Mart is right and “Wal-Mart Moms” are primarily concerned with bread-and-butter economic issues this election season, will we see them vote to change Wal-Mart?

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Wal-Mart’s health care plan is sprawling, and past attempts (PDF) to asses the plan have proved difficult. So we’re not immediately sure what to make of this announcement from Wal-Mart earlier today.

The retailer’s claims that it will expand health coverage for its associates appear fairly superficial, focusing on maternity care and smoking cessation (as opposed to, oh I don’t know, subrogation clauses). They don’t address many of the fundamental problems with the company’s plan: premiums that are too high, waiting periods that are too long and coverage that’s too sparse. To our Wal-Mart-employee readers, what do you think of Wal-Mart’s proposed changes?

Wal-Mart expands worker health benefits [Reuters]

etail leader Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Tuesday that it was expanding health benefits for workers, including offering a 2009 program that provides pre-pregnancy and child development services.

The company said a “Life With Baby” program in next year’s benefits package would provide workers counseling with registered nurses through all phases of maternity.

It said that plan also includes expanded benefits such as periodontal cleanings to help prevent gum disease in mother and child, and a new program designed to stop smoking.

In a statement, the retailer said about 15,000 of its workers have babies each year.

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We’ll take this news from the Financial Times as proof that Wal-Mart Moms agree with our post last week: they’re worried about the kinds of economic problems caused by Wal-Mart.

The FT article makes it seem a bit like working class white women have been responsible for the outcome of every election in the last ten years. We might not go that far, but it’s certainly true that millions of people shop at Wal-Mart’s stores each week, and they all have a vote come November. So what are Wal-Mart Moms thinking now?

Ms Palin’s fading star is only part of the reason why Democrats see a fresh opportunity to go after working class, white women. At least as important is the return of “kitchen table” economic issues to the heart of the campaign, eclipsing the debate over values and culture that Ms Palin helped ignite.

Wal-Mart moms have been hit harder than most by America’s economic storm as their household budgets come under pressure from the rising cost of food, energy and healthcare, while wages stagnate.

A big part of this is Wal-Mart’s role in our economy. Though the retailer claims its low prices help working class families, Wal-Mart reps are less eager to discuss the company’s depressing effect on wages, its tendency to ship well-paying jobs overseas and putting its private health care needs on the public tab. Wal-Mart moms are concerned with the forces that drove them to shop at Wal-Mart in the first place, and the forces which keep them there, too.

Wal-Mart moms beginning to buy Democrat’s message [Financial Times]

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Wal-Mart’s senior counsel, Tom Mars, gave a speech this week on diversity in the company’s legal department. Because Wal-Mart has never had any diversity-related legal issues.

Mars used a “luncheon honoring the winners of the second annual survey of best law firms for women” as a time to showcase Wal-Mart’s gender diversity and commitment to flexible schedules. (The survey also examined the best companies for working mothers, and Wal-Mart didn’t make the list.) The fact that Mars was invited at all seems like an unintentional joke: not only is Wal-Mart currently involved in the largest class action gender discrimination lawsuit in history, but the company’s scheduling policies have also been condemned as bad for working mothers and hard on families.

Mars’ speech reveals a dichotomy within Wal-Mart: store employees and corporate employees are separated by a wide gulf, and different rules, benefits and salaries are applied to each. Women may very well make up a significant part of Wal-Mart’s corporate legal department, as Mars insists, but women working in Wal-Mart’s stores still face discriminatory promotion practices and lower wages than their male counterparts. That’s not something ANY working mother should support.

Law Firms Get Rated on Female Friendliness [New York Times Shifting Careers Blog]

Two weeks ago, on the same day that Lehman filed for bankruptcy protection more than 300 corporate lawyers showed up at the Mandarin Hotel in New York City for a luncheon honoring the winners of the second annual survey of best law firms for women sponsored by Working Mother Magazine and Flex-Time Lawyers. The high attendance in the face of such economic turmoil suggested that work/life issues and the promotion of female lawyers has genuinely become a pressing business issue for the legal industry.

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Wal-Mart stockpiles massive amounts of information about its customers. The retailer’s databases are enormous - bigger than the internet - and the information contained on its servers includes everything from which aisles shoppers choose to go down to the time of day chocolate milk sells quickest.

Now, the statistics firm ACNeilson (best known for its TV viewership ratings) is taking Wal-Mart’s data and helping the retailer understand its shoppers even better. At a recent conference of Wal-Mart suppliers, Neilson reps broke down how many cartons of eggs, car parts, and bags of dog food Wal-Mart customers buy each year. The study also revealed the average household incomes of Wal-Mart’s shoppers, the average number of trips each shopper makes and how much shoppers spent at the stores, on average. Ultimately, Wal-Mart hopes to use this information to customize store inventories and increase profits.

The study comes at a time when political analysts everywhere are desperately trying to understand Wal-Mart’s core demographic. “Wal-Mart Moms” may be the key to November’s election, some pundits say. Political alignment might not have been on Neilson’s questionnaire, but the study does provide some insight. According to Neilson, the average Wal-Mart shopper is a “pet-loving, pasta-eating, car-driving, gadget-obsessed dieter who either doesn’t care for cheese or buys it elsewhere.” (That part about the cheese may or may not impact the election directly.)

The data in the study doesn’t provide a complete picture of Wal-Mart’s shoppers - and it certainly doesn’t encompass all of the middle-aged women being wooed by politicians - but Wal-Mart is trying harder than ever to win over “the core female head of household” i.e., the “Wal-Mart Mom.” The retailer isn’t alone in catering to this powerful group not alone, and who knows - maybe quality dog food actually is the secret to winning the presidency in November.

Marketing firm looks at Wal-Mart shopper, trends [NW Arkansas Morning News]