Macroeconomic Indicators

Walmart (officially Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. ) is an American multinational company specialized in the large distribution. The company was founded by Sam Walton and today supervised by his oldest son, S. Robson Walton. Founded under this name in 1962, it was quickly developed in Arkansas, then after that in 1991 it started dominate all United States before he internationalized itself. Today, Walmart is much more like your vicinity store. We comprise a great choice of high-quality goods, friendly service and, naturally, low prices each and every day.

One goal that Walmart is always pursuing is to bring the best experiment in customer’s everywhere purchasing from their stores to the Internet. The Walmart. com store which is a subsidiary Wal-Mart Stores, Inc was founded in January 2000. The headquarters is in San Francisco Peninsula near Silicon Valley. Walmart is operating in many continents and countries but under different name. In Europe, the stores are present in Great Britain under the name of ASDA. Walmart is operating from now on in the Asian market. Installed in China since 1996, the group employed about thirty thousands workers in this country in 2006.

It is also present in Japan under the name of SEIYU. In 2005, an average of twenty million customers attended the Walmart stores each day (Walmart Corporate, 2011). Walmart marked a very important turn in their business life in 2005 by engaging into the introduction of a new environmental durability, under the control of the President (Leadership CEO) Lee Scott. The sustainability engagement was developed after that Walmart decided to assist and help with $18 million cash money in donations the U. S. hurricane relief efforts. As of 2005, Walmart employed more than 1. million associates in more than 6,200 facilities around the world including 3,800 stores in U. S. and 3,800 international units with $312. 4 billion in sales during this year. The company received 138 million customers each week in the U. S. , Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, South Korea and the United Kingdom. Then in 2006, the number of weekly customers rapid growth went from 138 to 176 million worldwide, with 6,779 places. Walmart has reached net sales record of $345 billion (Walmart Corporate, 2011).

Walmart contributed in more than $415 million in cash and goods to 100,000 organizations worldwide through the Walmart Foundation, the charitable partners and the donations of the customers and associates to help better health care. In 2007, Walmart increased its successful $4 generic program, which in date of 2007 has saved customers more than $396 million on prescription drug costs. 2007 In February 2007 Walmart helped launch Better Health Care Together, has single partnership off organizations dedicated to has set off judicious furnace common principles for achieving has new American health care system by 2012.

Later in the year, Walmart expanded its successful $4 generic program, which aces off 2007 had saved customers more than $396 million one regulation drug costs (Walmart Corporate, 2011). The four (4) Economic Indicators Wal-Mart is indeed a very big and retailing sales empire with 3550 outlets in the United States and plans for much more. It also has stores in at least ten countries and plans to open 120 auxiliary stores on the international markets. In hardly ten years it gained almost 15 percent of the retail grocery sales in all the United States.

According to Walmart CEO Lee Scott, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. , seeks a share of 30% of the grocery sales and any other product line that it carries (United for a Fair Economy, 2011). Wal-Mart found out that there is an increase in the taxable retail sales everywhere in the city of one year after the opening of Walmart Supercenter which averagered over $79 million compared to the year before the opening for all the communities (21 supercenters). The taxable increases in retail sales made the average of 15 percent for all the cities (Wal-Mart Press Room, 2011).

As the report Wal-Mart Press Room (2011) also mentionned: “In every city where Walmart has opened a supercenter in California, the city-wide taxable retail sales (including apparel stores, general merchandise stores, grocery stores, home furnishing and appliance stores, and other retail stores) have increased in the year following the opening of the supercenter as compared to the taxable retail sales of the year prior to the opening. Moreover, the city-wide taxable retail sales have continued to increase in each subsequent year in all communities that have had a Walmart Supercenter for multiple years”.

It will be important to know that Wal-mart has a big impact in the U. S. consumer price index (CPI). Indeed, advantages and costs of Wal-Mart’s expansion through the United States is a very heating discussion. A lot of people that support Wal-Mart because they think that the lower price offered by the company is doing more than compensating U. S consumers; the less expensive the price, the more customers you get. However, a study of Global Insight (GI) which is a consulting company, concluded that Wal-Mart’s expansion as made the consumers of the United States saved an average of $263 billion, which is indeed really flawed.

Here, the GI announces that total prices lowered by Wal-Mart (which was measured by the overall consumer price index (CPI)) by a total of 3. 1% from 1985 to 2004. Then they mentionned that Wal-Mart prices of the products (goods) went down by 4. 2% above this period (Bernstein & Bivens; 2006). The economy created only 57. 000 jobs in the month of November. Moreover, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) stated that the unemployment rate did stayed primarily unchanged with 5. 9 percent, representing 8. 7 million formally unemployment workers looking out for stable jobs.

Consequently, for the fortieth consecutive month, the United States has a lost of 17. 000 manufacturing workers jobbs in November for a total of 2. 6 million manufacturing jobs lost since the Ex President George W. Bush took over the office. But, this unemployment rate issue remains essentially unchanged in the Wal-Mart economy. Indeed, which ws explained by Mrs. Sweeney was the fact that the industrial center lost 17,000 manufacturing jobs in november, the fact is that the middle-class jobs are too often replaced by low-paying job which is an indication of the new Wal-Mart economy.

Several jobs are being lost will not come back, and of the nation’s middle-class is being notched away (AFL-CIO, 2003). Wal-Mart is a symbol of the US economy of the 21st century, which is held in radical contrast to the symbol of the old economy. Indeed, It is one of the giants of the ” service sector” of the United States economy. To add, its $244. 6 billion in the sales in 2002 composed more than 2% of all the gross domestic product of the United States (GDP). Let us also mention that this has made Wal-Mart the world’s largest company (based on incomes).

That is the 19th greater economy in the world. Consequently, it is our nation’s biggest employer, with 1. 3 million employees in the whole wide world, with plans of hiring maybe more than 800. 000 during the five years to come. Strategies that can be used by the firm based on the current economic indicators Wal-Mart dominates already many sales sectors, selling for example all the sports products, office supplies to clothing apparel and the groceries. It claims all my itself at least 20 percent of the country’s retail toy business.

Now it has more groceries than any other United States supermarkets chain and it even has overtaken Kroger. Wal-Mart has already a good strategy market even though most of their works has been giving to foreign countries such china and such the fact is that maybe it is the reason why the price is so low and affordable to every low or middle-class citizens. Wal-Mart’s rapid Unique Growth Strategy has made itself being talked about to a point that many retails companies such as Kmart Corp. are trying to compete with Wal-Mart’s distribution system and telecommunications structure. Wal-Mart Stores are widely being spread like mushrooms from its Arkansas base by building new stores strategically placed close to the hubs and small towns, rather than leapfrogging through the nation like the other retailers stores (Harper, 2004). Wal-Mart, Stores Inc. ‘s growth has completely accrued. Unlike a lot of other companies, Wal-Mart did not buy existing chains of retail sale in order to preserve the control of company culture.

This what the experts explained; because this strategy helped Wal-Mart stayed in the competition and still being one of the best. Wal-Mart’s market predominance gives him the extraordinary power to make pressure on suppliers in order to reduce their costs. This dominated Retail Industry has made Target, Kmart Corp. and Home Depot, and other companies, to oblige manufacturers and suppliers to lower their prices (Harper, 2004).

References:

AFL-CIO. (2003). Good Jobs Still Disappearing. News Archive Article. Retrieved from http://www. aflcio. org/issues/jobseconomy/jobs/ns12052003. cfm Bernstein, J and Bivens, J. (2006). The Wal-Mart debate: A false choice between prices and wages. The Economic Politicy Institute Article. Retrieved from http://www. epi. org/publications/entry/ib223/ Harper, L. (2004). Wal-Mart: Impact of a Retail Giant. Just Wal-Mart? Article. Retrieved from http://www. pbs. org/newshour/bb/business/wal-mart/unique. tml United for a Fair Economy. (2011). The Wal-Mart Revolution. Why Wal-Mart? Article. Retrieved from http://www. dsausa. org/lowwage/walmart/why_walmart. html Walmart Corporate. (2011). History Timeline. Wal-Mart Article. Retrieved from http://walmartstores. com/AboutUs/7603. aspx Wal-Mart Press Room. (2011). New Research Reveals Strong Local Economic Benefit of Walmart Supercenters. Press Room News Article. Retrieved from http://walmartstores. com/pressroom/news/8836. aspx