08-17-2013, 01:44 PM
Hi Horace --
I don't know a ton about WMT as a stock. I am prohibited from owning it because of my job, and so I don't keep it on my watch list and I've never really scrutinized it. But my general observations are similar to yours with respect to the shopping experience.
If the economy suffers, and large portions of the population are short of cash, WMT might benefit, but I wonder about competition from dollar stores and other very low-price operators. I also wonder whether most of the incredible WMT stock growth resulted from expansion, rather than same-store performance. And can that expansion continue? Also, it is hard for me to imagine that there is much room left for them to eke out further efficiency or scale gains.
On the other hand, WMT has certainly made lots of people rich in recent decades, so perhaps I shouldn't question it!
I don't know a ton about WMT as a stock. I am prohibited from owning it because of my job, and so I don't keep it on my watch list and I've never really scrutinized it. But my general observations are similar to yours with respect to the shopping experience.
If the economy suffers, and large portions of the population are short of cash, WMT might benefit, but I wonder about competition from dollar stores and other very low-price operators. I also wonder whether most of the incredible WMT stock growth resulted from expansion, rather than same-store performance. And can that expansion continue? Also, it is hard for me to imagine that there is much room left for them to eke out further efficiency or scale gains.
On the other hand, WMT has certainly made lots of people rich in recent decades, so perhaps I shouldn't question it!