Wal-Mart Q3 earnings preview

With Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) set to deliver its third quarter results this Thursday, many eyes will be on Bentonville. Most likely, the world's largest retailer will meet or beat expectations of $0.76 per share, up from the $0.69 per share earnings from the year-ago quarter. If there's one company that is not feeling the pinch of these hard economic times, it's Wal-Mart.

Customers have continued to flock to the retailer in search of everything from groceries to car tires to prescription medications. And they demand the absolute lowest price possible. Is there any other retailer you can think of that can meet that demand? In terms of perception, there is only one, and it's Wal-Mart.

Meanwhile, the retailer has stepped back from the effort to expand to more customer segments and sell higher-profit items. Instead, as consumers hunker down to save every last penny, it's lowering prices on the most popular items, the staples of every Wal-Mart shelf. It's all in the inventory turns, right Eduardo?

Are Wal-Mart shoppers really abandoning high-priced brand names and expensive gourmet groceries to save a buck, even when gasoline prices have dropped by almost half in many places? You betcha. While the U.S. government is busy socializing or coddling so many industries with your future tax dollars, you might as well save every penny you can. Once you have a few hundred of them, you might want to see how far you can stretch them at your local Wal-Mart.