How Big Is Wal-Mart?

[majoe7]

I found this info on Wal-Mart the other day. On the forum we have discussed Wal-Mart or larger Companies and how big they are. Here are some interesting facts about "the King". How Big Is Wal-Mart 1. Americans spend $36,000,000 @ Wal-Mart every hour of every day. 2. This works out to a $20,928 profit every minute. 3. Wal-Mart will sell more from January1 to St. Patrick’s Day (March17th) than Target sells all year. 4. Wal- Mart is bigger than Home Depot + Kroger + Target + Sears + Costco + K Mart combined 5. Wal- Mart employs 1.6 million people and is the largest private employer. Most can't speak English. 6. Wal- Mart is the largest company in the history of the world. 7. Wal-Mart now sells more food than Kroger & Safeway combined, and keep in mind they did this in only 15 years. 8. During the same period, 31 Supermarkets chains sought bankruptcy (including Winn - Dixie) 9. Wal-Mart now sells more food than any other store in the world. 10. Wal-Mart had approx. 3,900 stores in the USA of which 1,906 are Super Centers; this is 1,000 more than it had 5 years ago. 11. This year 7.2 billion different purchasing experiences will occur at a Wal-Mart store. (Earth's Population is approximately 6.5 billion.) 12. 90% of all Americans live within 15 miles of a Wal-Mart. This was an interesting comment that I also read about all of this. It stated. "Let Wal-Mart bail out Wall Street. Better yet.... let them run the damm Government." I remember my Brother in Law telling me once that his Wal-Mart did close to a Million dollars a day. He was the General Manager. Sometimes his bonus was as much as my yearly salary. Just some food for thought. John

[swstout]

Lawn care business tips

Some more facts! Wal mart employees (almost 4 million) are tax payers Wal mart is one of the best examples of free market success Wal Mart sponsors almost 4 Million dollars in education direct grants (scholarships) Wal Mart started the discount medication program Hillary Clinton was once on the Board of Directors of Wal Mart Wal Mart demonstrates just how government regulations have sent American jobs oversees Steve

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Originally Posted by majoe7

2. This works out to a $20,928 profit every minute.

Some of this profit is earned by cutting every employee's hours down to less than 40 hours per week. From my understanding, if employees work less than 40 hours per week, than the employer no longer has to provide benefits. Benefits cost the employer a considerable amount per employee, a very substantial % of the employee's wages. From what I could find online, it appears the cost to the EMPLOYER is about 25% to 40% of the employee's wages. So to make it easy, if the average employee made $7.00 per hour, and they indeed have 1.6 million employees, then I can see why Wal-Mart does not want to pay benefits.....

$7.00/hour X 25% benefits X 2080 hours/year (52 wks X 40 hrs per week = 2080) = $3640. This is the minimum cost for benefits per employee per year. Want to get interesting? At this cost, benefits costs for 1.6 million employees comes to $5,824,000,000 per year. Yes, that is over $5.8 BILLION per year. And that is just the minimum.

Now lets say that we go with Missouri's minimum wage, $7.25 per hour. And with the possibility that their benefits actually cost more like 40% of their wages. $7.25 per hour x 40% benefits x 2080 x 1.6 million employees = $9,651,200,000!!!! Now I suspect that there are states with higher minimum wage than Missouri, but I suppose $7.25 is close to being average.

So it appears that providing benefits would cost Wal-Mart anywhere from $5,824,000,000 to $9,651,200,000 in profits per year.....

Now if I did my math correctly, $7.25 x 40% benefits x 1.6 employees / 60 minutes = $77,333.33 benefits cost per minute. So benefits cost almost 4 times per minute as much as the profit they make per hour. Now we all know that they would pass this cost on to their customers.

Now, you say that their customers would not buy as much if the costs were higher? Very possibly true. But do you think as many people would buy from Wal-Mart if they knew that Wal-Mart is keeping their costs down by NOT paying benefits to 1.6 employees?

Now I definitely do NOT want to see Wal-Mart running the US Government!!!! Why? For starters, Wal-Mart sells more products that are made overseas than American Made products. I was unable to locate recent facts, but I did find this quote:

A March 1992 study by Goldman Sachs analysts George Strachan and Scott Ehrens indicates that Wal-Mart's move to private label goods may have reversed the chain's Made in America direction. Of 20 control-label skus (excluding Sam's American Choice products) which could be identified by country of origin, only two were made in the USA. The others were made offshore.

Keep in mind, this was back when Sam Walton was still around. It is my understanding that in 1989 he made another effort to bring a higher % of American made products in. But he has since passed away.... I can only guess what the % is today.....

These are JUST TWO of the problems I have with Wal-Mart: Wal-Mart does not pay benefits if they can avoid it (I confirmed this through a co-worker who's son used to work at Wal-Mart) and they have sent MANY jobs overseas.

I am not a big fan of Wal-Mart...... check out http://www.madeinusa.com/

[Steve]

Those are some very interesting Wal-Mart facts.

Do you think this country is better off because of Wal-Mart or are we worse off?

Originally Posted by Steve

Those are some very interesting Wal-Mart facts.

Do you think this country is better off because of Wal-Mart or are we worse off?

Worse. Definitely.

Another reason why I believe we are worse off because of them is because their cheap (not only inexpensive but cheap, and worthless) causes people to get the disposable attitude. By that I mean that they think, if this one quits, we will just get another one. That is a bad mentality. It encourages manufacturers to to manufacture cheap and worthless products. I personally prefer products that will last a lifetime. Like they used to. So instead of me buying a new lawnmower every 2-3 years, I now have money to buy other accessories because I have the money to spend that I would have spent on another mower this year. I still have the mower I bought 3 years ago. And in another 3 years I still have this mower and can buy something else (if I choose to). In a few more years I can buy a four wheeler or something else for my own enjoyment rather than having to buy another brand new junk lawnmower.....

Yeah, definitely worse off.....

[jasonw]

Originally Posted by SuperiorPower

Worse. Definitely.

I 2nd that. My sears coffee pot was the best thing I ever had for the 10 years I had it. We finally laid it to rest and have been through 3 Walmart Coffee pots in the past 4 months. They sell crap built by the lowest Chinese sweatshop bidder. They buy all the factory rejects for bottom dollar to resell.

[mark123]

Originally Posted by SuperiorPower

Some of this profit is earned by cutting every employee's hours down to less than 40 hours per week. From my understanding, if employees work less than 40 hours per week, than the employer no longer has to provide benefits. ...

Many, many years ago (I'm going to say around 1996) I worked at walmart for about 6 months. Anyone who got over 28 hours/week received their benefit package. It may be different now. I don't know. It's not like people are forced to work at walmart. Everyone I know that still works there likes it and says they are treated fairly.

The last time I went to walmart I bought two items. Sticky letters and copier paper. Both were Made in USA. They do sell American made products but you have to search for them. I don't know, it's not really walmart's fault that people don't care if something is made in an enemy country such as china. Trust me, walmart would not sell chinese items if people would not buy them. The problem is apathy.

[CHEESE2009]

Everything you need to know about Wall-Mart

allsp.com

Every South Park episode is on that site.

Click SEASON 8

Scroll down on the right & click the episode titled,
"Something Wall-Mart this way comes"

It's a very good episode & if you enjoy South Park humor, you'll end up watching every episode! LOL

This video will tell you just about everything.

[lawncrafter56]

Found this interesting and much like Picfarmer I agree that is impossible to get any help when your sears lawn stuff breaks. this will guaranee it.

http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker...st,dia,spy,XRT

[Steve]

I was watching a show on McDonalds the other night and it made me think of this post.

Do you feel we are better off with McDonald's restaurants or no?