Brian you could see this coming. Last month Walmart felt their sales would be down in April. They are trying to right the ship but it is hard to turn on a dime. The management team is the best in years The store manager in Tucson is excellent that I know and the store looks great after the remodel, next year we should be talking about 60 dollar stock

It was a bad April all around. (Except for Costco. WOW guys...amazing!) That being said, let's clarify here. Wal-Mart same store sales fell 3.5% compared with April a year ago. Same store sales measure the performance of stores that have been open for at least 12 months. That does NOT mean that those stores were not profitable. They just did lousy compared to a year ago.

By the way, Target, Wal-Mart's biggest rival, reported a 6.1% decline in same store April sales.

Wal-Mart sales decline should be looked at seriously especially by investors in the current markets. I see no reason for their sales to slip this much unless people are just pulling back. Having worked in discount retailing for 20 years and in retail for 30 years I see something more up than cold weather in April. Could it be there is no more cheap money out there? Could Alan Greenspan's prediction that we have a third of a chance going into a recesssion this year? It is hard to think it could be possible with the un-employment rate being as low as it is. Sometimes when there are no clouds in the sky it rains. One other thought, for we who watch politics. Maybe people are thinking very soon Congress will be cutting people's yearly salaries by raising taxes? Also, taxes seem to be going up locally in many parts of the country. Some in Congress talking about passing legislation to force small business to offer insurance to employees. At least I thought I heard one of the Democrat Presidential candidates mention that should be done. I beleive Edwards mentioned this, but not sure. It is a stupid idea since we are not a socialist country yet. I think people are worried about how much money the country is spending, and most people know Congress is getting ready to raise our taxes, which means more spending. If we go into a recession, and then Congress raises taxes so they can play Robin Hood, we all know what that means. Maybe people are trying to bring down their debt levels to prepare. People are not as stupid as they used to be, but there are still alot of ignorant people out there. Wal-Mart is a great company and when the greatest companies struggle that raises the question, what is coming next. It starts with the letter RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

As a consumer, I think the decline in sales is due to Crowded Stores, Unavaialble Parking, Loiteringg at stores that include restuarants such as McDonalds and narrow, crowded isles. I muc more prefer Target or even Kmart to Walmart to avoid this mess ! The storres have no control over loiterers hanging around the store fronts mainly consisting of Hispanics and Blacks. Not meant to be a racist remark at all, but these people simply loiter all day long either n the stores ( family members are employees ) or out front. It's terrible. Something you dont normwally see at Target. Also, Target is laid out much better with bigger ailes and much less comjestion !

Now, that being said, I would address those issues before I started freaking out over economic impact !

Maybe folks have finally come to their senses and realize that there's a cost to having WalMart in their neighborhood and they aren't going to feed that beast anymore.

Gee, Al Sue, hard to imagine how anyone could perceive your comments as racist. I mean, just because you state that the majority of the folks who loiter are Hispanics and Blacks and that they simply loiter all day long, it doesn't mean you're a racist. Nooooooo. How 'bout them Jews and I-talians? What are they up to over by your WalMart?