The fought so hard and for long to make US companies outsource as much work overseas so that Walmart can scalp a few more pennies here and there. Now it seems that this short term thinking is hurting Walmart since thier customer base is underemployed and/or out of a job due to thier push US jobs out so we can make a bit more than usual. And Consumer debt has dropped, The importing debt and goods, exporting services and jobs will only work for so long.
I also theorize that perhaps vendors will be the demise of wall mart. WMT will bleed the vendors to death.
Henry Ford gets some credit by paying enough money that he helped create a middle class that could afford his product. Walmart might get credit for helping wipe out that middle class. You would think that making more poor people creates more consumers for Walmart but if frugality sets in as a national characteristic which it might, Walmart will need to shut because they are too big. I see the auto companies going under because people had to skip a year of buying a car and low and behold, discovered their cars still work and they never really needed the new cars they were buying every year.
I was very much surprised by Walmart's warning this morning. If the strong retails warn, what could we expect from the rest ? Scary times.