For years, rising home prices and home equity loans helped people with stagnant incomes to keep up with record food and energy prices. With the collapse of the real estate market, it was beginning to look like there was nothing to take up the slack. But this morning, CNNMoney reports, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) customers who received gift cards over the holidays are using them for "food and consumables rather than discretionary purchases."

If that's really true, rather than a convenient excuse for a less-than-perfectly managed retail store experience, then it tells us that the U.S. economy is in a heap of trouble. That's because a consumer who uses gift cards to buy food instead of gifts is one that is running low on options. Compared to getting money from a pawn shop, a gift card is a compelling way to pay. But once that gift card runs out -- and it probably can't buy more than a month or two of groceries, then what?

Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT) is reportedly aiming to move the music industry right into the anti-piracy technology-free era itself, threatening several label companies that the retail giant will pull their antiquated files from walmart.com if they do not upgrade. Billboard also reported that Wal-Mart's 2% share in the digital store arena may not say much, at least in comparison with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s iTunes Store, but the chain's CD sales account for a lot of business in the music industry (Billboard estimates 22%).

That large CD sales market for Wal-Mart is big incentive to see the growth of the music industry in the digital market. As CD sales decline, some have speculated that Wal-Mart may begin to re-size the entertainment department in stores, essentially pushing the market online for consumers. Another interest Billboard notes Wal-Mart may have in the "all-encompassing digital format" is the run against iTunes the company and other digital stores could make, like Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN)'s MP3 store. iTunes dominates the digital market, holding 70% of all sales.

It hardly seems "fair" to the record labels and the music industry for retain giants and digital stores to be forcing the change. If these growths and rumors tell us anything, it is that retail chains and digital stores are more attuned to what consumers want than the music industry. This is not a big revelation, but Apple alone has not spearheaded an industry-wide shift away from anti-piracy technology. Apple, Wal-Mart, and Amazon, may not be working together to increase the availability of music, but it appears they have the same goals. They just want sales, and apparently consumers just want easy to access music.