Walmart (WMT) Executive: "There are Families Not Eating at the End of the Month"

Not much sarcasm or spin to put on this one; in an increasingly bifurcated US society we are seeing a lot of fraying of the seams.  We've been pounding the table on the "real economy" for 2+ years, as the number of Americans on food stamps surges from 1 in 11, to 1 in 9... and now even Costco is rolling out food stamp programs [Oct 30, 2009: Costco to Roll Out Food Stamps Nationwide] but the country is obsessed with very different measures in calculating our domestic "prosperity". 



This line by a Walmart executive will take it's place as a candidate for quote of the year [Sep 1, 2009: China Sovereign Wealth Chairman with Quote of the Year 2009]

There are families not eating at the end of the month,” said Stephen Quinn, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Walmart Stores, and “literally lining up at midnight” at Wal-Mart stores waiting to buy food when paychecks or government checks land in their accounts.

We also have noted over the past year, Walmart saying they see a huge rush of grocery purchases around "pay periods" (whether that comes from actual work, unemployment checks, food stamp card debited, etc). In English this means people are literally living paycheck to paycheck, and cannot buy minor items... such as food, in part of that space between pay periods.  [Dec 26 2007: Target Shoppers Turning into Walmart Shoppers]

Food retailing consultant Bill Bishop, of Willard Bishop Consulting, said Costco's decision shows how pervasive the pressure on consumers has become. He said more and more grocers are seeing their sales peak and fall based on when assistance benefits are distributed.

It will not be too bad this year. Both China and America are addressing bubbles by creating more bubbles and we're just taking advantage of that. So we can't lose.