WALMART CLOSING 269 STORES AND COUNTING

[ThirtyThree]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-01-15-09-18-12

Is this the beginning of the global financial collapse? No, seriously. That is the topic I want to debate.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/global-stocks-fall-on-oil-and-china-woes-1452850130

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2016/01/15/gone-stocks-rob-15t-investors-year/78845082/

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/15/a-recession-worse-than-2008-is-coming-commentary.html

 

[Revoltingest]

This isn't about economic crash.
And stock prices are nearly irrelevant indicators.
It's more about internet competition.

I've been in real estate development for a while now, & we saw that starting around 2010, big box store chains slowed opening new ones. We were negotiating with Home Depot, & suddenly, they placed a nationwide moratorium on opening new stores. They focused instead on expanding their on-line sales. Actually, since the late 90s, I began shopping there only by catalog, avoiding the stores because shopping that way was inefficient & costlier.

This is the economy becoming more efficient. But it also means turmoil.
Low skill people will be hit the hardest because there's little they can do
which is worth what they cost (min wage plus overhead).
Interesting times lie ahead.

 

[Deidre]

Not a fan of Wal-mart, but sad that many will lose jobs. Interesting to note in the article that one of their 'rivals' is Amazon. Hmmm. Not sure why that surprises me, I didn't realize they sell similar products to each other.

 

[ThirtyThree]

Not a fan of Wal-mart, but sad that many will lose jobs. Interesting to note in the article that one of their 'rivals' is Amazon. Hmmm. Not sure why that surprises me, I didn't realize they sell similar products to each other.

Welcome to the age of online shopping.

 

[esmith]

The real bad indicator of global economic problems is the price of oil. It is now below $30.00 a barrel. This is a indication of the slowdown of the worldwide, including, the US economy.

 

[Gambit]

Welcome to the age of online shopping.

Agreed. I love Amazon.

 

[Gambit]

The real bad indicator of global economic problems is the price of oil. It is now below $30.00 a barrel. This is a indication of the slowdown of the worldwide, including, the US economy.

It seems to me that all economic news can be either interpret as bad or good (depending on your perspective). To me it's just all noise.

 

[Jake1001]

Watch job numbers and real estate prices.

 

[averageJOE]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-01-15-09-18-12

Is this the beginning of the global financial collapse? No, seriously. That is the topic I want to debate.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/global-stocks-fall-on-oil-and-china-woes-1452850130

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2016/01/15/gone-stocks-rob-15t-investors-year/78845082/

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/15/a-recession-worse-than-2008-is-coming-commentary.html

You want to debate if Wal-Mart closing a few stores is going to collapse the worlds finances?

 

[esmith]

You want to debate if Wal-Mart closing a few stores is going to collapse the worlds finances?

No, it is an indication that on-line shopping has grown to the point that you average brick and mortar stores are losing their customer base. Now you may want to debunk that the closing of brick and mortar stores has no affect on the economy. However, if you would stop and consider that this means the loss of jobs that can not be replaced means unemployment rises and this means less money going into the economy. It used to be that certain types were against the "big box" stores and Walt-mart because they destroyed the local "mom and pop" stores. So, it is now those stores are starting to see a decline in their business. In addition Mal-mart opened new stores based on the economy of the local area that they were in. When the economy slows there is no longer the need for these stores. So, there are many reasons for the closings, but this could be seen as a downward spiral.

 

[Sunstone]

Hopefully, any US employees laid off by these closings will be able to find jobs that, unlike Walmart jobs, pay them well enough they do not need to go on food stamps and medicaid to make ends meet.

 

[Altfish]

The real bad indicator of global economic problems is the price of oil. It is now below $30.00 a barrel. This is a indication of the slowdown of the worldwide, including, the US economy.

It is also an indication of a surplus of oil because sanctions have been lifted.
Oil price makes me laugh. One minute it is all panic because it is too high, now it is too low and it is panic.
Surely a low price has many benefits, heating, transportation, manufacturing must all be cheaper. Why aren't we all rejoicing.

 

[Mindmaster]

Damn, now the tweakers won't have anything to do at 2AM.

 

[MARCELLO]

I am soooo sorry for its CEO AND CFO,which means they are not able to their job due to some unknown reason ))

 

[Twilight Hue]

It's just economic "weather" . Wal-Mart will be fine as a corporate enterprise as market conditions adjust. They already have an online means of shopping themselves, and the closings I suspect affect older smaller stores that were probably slated to close anyways.

The Wal-Mart in my area is booming and doing excellent business.

 

[Revoltingest]

Watch job numbers and real estate prices.

Real estate prices are tricky though.
Several factors not related to economic health drive prices.....
- Home buyer psychology, eg, inflation fear
- Gov interest rates....low rates make higher prices affordable.
- Gov loan subsidies & forced lending to create diversity

 

[Midnight Rain]

The real bad indicator of global economic problems is the price of oil. It is now below $30.00 a barrel. This is a indication of the slowdown of the worldwide, including, the US economy.

Not exactly. While the economy of the world plays a role it only plays part of the role. The places where recent economic issues are causing trouble would be certain places in Europe. But our economy is currently stronger now in this hyper dip in oil prices than it was when oil was at $100 a barrel.

Past economic trouble has more to do with it than current economic trouble. A few years back we had a terrible issue with gas prices and so we seen a huge shift away from gas guzzlers to more economic cars with higher mileage as well as increased usage of public transportation. This trend has continued as we see fewer sales in the SUV department and skyrocketing sales for hybrids and other high mileage vehicles. This has caused and overall dip in the amount of oil we use more so than simply people not choosing to drive places.

The second and probably biggest issue is that American oil production has doubled. To the point where we even export oil to certain countries even. So now we have "too much oil" and not enough demand. But it isn't a proportional representation of our economy. In fact this is really really good for all other sectors other than oil.

 

[McBell]

 

[Guy Threepwood]

Real estate prices are tricky though.
Several factors not related to economic health drive prices.....
- Home buyer psychology, eg, inflation fear
- Gov interest rates....low rates make higher prices affordable.
- Gov loan subsidies & forced lending to create diversity

Yes, who would have thought- forcing banks to lend to borrowers they wouldn't otherwise touch with a barge pole, would lead to horrible problems in the housing market?

Still I try to be optimistic, I think that corrected itself somewhat, painfully, but inventories look better, and all real estate is local to a large degree yes?- seeing quite a bit new construction in parts of our state these days- relative to 5 yrs ago certainly

 

[Revoltingest]

Yes, who would have thought- forcing banks to lend to borrowers they wouldn't otherwise touch with a barge pole, would lead to horrible problems in the housing market?

There are problems with politicians as regulators.....
- They don't understand the industries they seek to manage.
- The results they care about are elections, not bad consequences.
- They aren't liable for deleterious consequences.
- They think they know better than markets.

Still I try to be optimistic, I think that corrected itself somewhat, painfully, but inventories look better, and all real estate is local to a large degree yes?- seeing quite a bit new construction in parts of our state these days- relative to 5 yrs ago certainly

I'm more of a pessimist here.
The same old risk factors are creeping back once again.
I've seen ads for aggressive lending within the last year.
And of course, the subsidies are still there.