Wal-mart sales a ‘total disaster’, say leaked emails
Wal-Mart has said sales this month have been a “total disaster”, according to leaked internal emails.
11:19PM GMT 15 Feb 2013
The retailer’s shares slid after Jerry Murray, vice president of finance and logistics, also told colleagues that it was “the worst start to a month I have seen in my ~7 years with the company”.
Wal-Mart, which owns Asda, had been expecting a boost to February sales from the Super Bowl and other factors including milder weather across the Atlantic.
January appears to have been little better, according to another email seen by Bloomberg.
On February 1, Cameron Geiger, senior vice president at Wal-Mart’s “US replenishment” division, said: “Have you ever had one of those weeks where your best- prepared plans weren’t good enough to accomplish everything you set out to do?
“Well, we just had one of those weeks here at Walmart US. Where are all the customers? And where’s their money?”
The emails shed light on the anxiety in the US retail sector as shoppers shoulder increases in payroll, or income, tax at an already difficult time for the economy.
Shares in Wal-Mart fell 2.1pc on Friday, marking their biggest fall since mid-December.
A spokesman for Wal-Mart said: “As with any organization, we often see internal communications that are not entirely accurate, that lack the proper context and represent individual opinions.”
The group will report its fourth-quarter results on February 21.