Channel Check: Walmart (WMT)

WalMart (WMT)

Over the past week, we surveyed 30 Walmart stores across the United States to track sales trends of and business levels in March. We asked the following questions: 

1. Do you think the weak housing market and weak economy are hurting business at your location?
2. What is the top selling brand of women's clothing right now?
3. How is business at you store currently?
4. Do you have excess inventory of any particular product or brand of product that will go on sale or discount soon? 

• Surprisingly only 40% of respondents stated that the weak housing market or the weak economy overall was hurting business at their store location. 60% said these macro factors were not affecting sales at their store location. This is a very similar result to our survey results from Target stores.
• Faded Glory was the top selling women's brand according to 23% of respondents. 20% said it was Danskin Hoodies while 16% said Norma Komali was the top women's brand. .
• Another major surprise (also seen in our Target Survey) in this survey was that 37% of respondents reported business as “Very Strong” at their store location while another 40% said business was “Above Average”. 17% reported business “Average” and 7% reported business as “Below Average”.
• 30% of respondents did confirm their was excess inventory of some items like toys, Valentine's Day items and electronics like TV's.   70% said there was not any excess inventory at their store location.  

Conclusion of Channel Check: The data in this report is surprising when compared to the broader economic news in the market today. The business levels appear to be strong compared to our historical surveys on Walmart and other big box retailers. The impact of negative housing also seems to be shrinking at least in the employees perceptions. Faded Glory ( a Walmart store brand) scored very strongly in this survey.

For access to the underlying survey or for more information, please contact Jason Katz at 415.867.0959 or jason@tickermine.com