By Maxine Shapiro, KERA 90.1 business commentator
Dallas, TX – I'll tell you, I have more fun talking about Wal-Mart then I do just about anything else - excluding Alan Greenspan, of course. And Wal-Mart's always making some headline somewhere and it's usually provocative. I'm Maxine Shapiro with KERA Marketplace Midday.
Wouldn't you think making $2.03 billion in record profits and sales for the third quarter would put a smile on Wall Street's face? Not if expectations were higher. An executive at Wal-Mart blamed the labor market for missing estimates by a penny per share. He said, "The consumer still seems to us to be very cautious and probably will remain so until we see further increases in employment." This was not the song they were singing earlier this year. Second quarter profits were up over 20 percent instead of the measly 14 percent increase for the last quarter. And I will just remind you - the likes of Neiman Marcus, Saks and Tiffany's are all seeing accelerated sales. Could Wal-Mart shoppers be going over to Neiman? No, I don't think so.
So now, the world's largest retailer and - if we just count revenue, the world's largest company - has found a way to undercut yet another competitor. It's what they do best. This time it's online music. The Wall Street Journal reports sources close to the company say Wal-Mart will launch a new music store at Walmart.com. The customary charge to download a song at other music sites is 99 cents. Wal-Mart is expected to beat that price. There will be about 200,000 song titles to choose from, with an emphasis on high-profile country-music stars.
And if it's juicy news you're looking for, we've got it. You can now view, or not view as you choose, the "Women of Wal-Mart" at Playboy.com, sans uniform. Back in September, the Playboy website put out a call for the sexiest Wal-Mart employees. I guess they don't consider men sexy. A Playboy.com spokeswoman said they received over 400 responses. Now what will conservative Wal-Mart do to these six women? They won't even sell Playboy at their stores. For KERA Marketplace Midday, I'm Maxine Shapiro.
Marketplace Midday Reports air on KERA 90.1 Monday - Friday at 1:04 p.m.
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