If Walmart Shoppers Are Broke, Then We’re All In Trouble

Ashley Lutz
BusinessInsider.com
Feb. 19, 2013

Wal-Mart’s leaked emails could be just the beginning of bad news for the retail industry.
The emails, leaked by Bloomberg, revealed that Walmart executives were freaking out because people weren’t shopping as much.

But there’s a fundamental problem that seems to be spreading throughout the discount industry as a whole: customers are broke.

Thanks to the recent payroll tax hike, the poorest are running out of money entirely, reports Renee Dudley at Bloomberg.

“It’s not Wal-Mart specific,” David Strasser, an analyst for Janney Montgomery Scott LLC told Dudley. “Anyone with any low-end exposure is going to feel this. That customer runs out of money every day as it is. Now they’re really going to run out of money.”

The Rest…HERE

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