Wal-Mart’s (WMT) Own Dollar Menu
McDonald’s (MCD) did so well with its dollar menu that Wal-Mart (WMT) decided it will have one, too. The difference is that the Wal-Mart version will be merchandise and not food. The world’s largest retailer is hoping to jack up…
The world’s largest retailer is hoping to jack up Q2 sales by offering shoppers irresistible bargains. Wal-Mart reported flat earnings for Q1 at $.77 and said it expected to deliver a range of $.83 to $.88 in the current period. Same-store sales are expected to be between flat and up 3%.
Having a strong second quarter may be an uphill fight. Recent employment numbers and shrinking access to credit will hurt retail sales, although Wal-Mart probably has its share of people who pay cash.
According to Reuters, “Treasurer Charles Holley said Wal-Mart has planned a number of merchandising initiatives to appeal to cash-strapped shoppers, including its dollar program.”
The theory behind the promotion is sound. Most stores could not bring in a lot of revenue selling items for $1 a piece, nor could most restaurants, but Wal-Mart and McDonald’s have such significant scale and customer bases that getting an even slight increase in discretionary spending could make the difference between a mediocre quarter and a good one.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.
McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.
His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.
A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.
TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.
McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.
