Wal-Mart has crossed my path twice in the past few days. First, in some written material. Then on Meet the Press. Wal-Mart’s CEO was a guest on Meet the Press yesterday.

As the recession deepens, Wal-Mart becomes more successful. The reason why is quite simple. They sell everything at reduced prices. From food to clothes to what have you cheap!

Wal-Mart has become America’s store of choice!

And whatever Wal-Mart seems to do, it does it better than its competitors.

What I have learned about Wal-Mart:

1. Americans spend $36 million every hour of every day at Wal-Mart. Every hour!

2. Wal-Mart’s profit on that gross is $20,928 per minute. More than some people earn in a
year!

3. Wal-Mart will sell more from January 1 thru St. Patrick’s Day on March 17 than Target
sells all year.

4. Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot, Kroger, Target, Sears, Costco and K Mart combined.
That’s big!

5. Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people and is the largest private employer. Interestingly,
most of its employees cannot speak English.

6. Wal-Mart is the largest company in the world. Impressive! Like Noah building the ark!

7. Wal-Mart now sells more food than Kroger and Safeway combined. Keep in mind Wal-Mart
did this in only 15 years.

8. During this same 15 year time period, 31 supermarkets sought bankruptcy.

9. Wal-Mart presently sells more food than any other store in the world.

10. Wal-Mart has approximately 3,900 stores in the USA. This is 1,000 more than it had 5 years ago.

11. This year 7.2 billion different purchasing experiences will occur at a Wal-Mart store. Note I said …a store. Multiply that number times Wal-Mart’s 3,900 stores. Then contrast the final figure with the Earth’s population which is approximately 6.5 billion. Mind boogling!

12. Ninety per cent of all Americans live within 15 miles of a Wal-Mart. Smart planning! Wal-Mart’s top level execs obviously are capable of exercising better judgment than the auto CEOs!

Such is the pertinent data re this shopping giant of today which we know as Wal-Mart.

Wild! Interesting!

The bottom line of the written material I read was that Wal-Mart should bail out the banks and auto companies. David Gregory asked Wal-Mart’s CEO the same question. Why doesn’t Wal-Mart do the bail outs? The CEO coyly smiled and said that Wal-Mart would stick to the retail business.

To be garnered from all this is that Wal-Mart is doing OK big time! It is providing what the American consumer wants and needs today. Things on the cheap!

What bothers me is that much of what Wal-Mart sells is produced in China and the Far East. And that is one of the things that has got us into trouble today!

The solution to our economic problems I do not know. However what I do know is we cannot have it both ways. We have to become a manufacturing giant again and buy American produced products!

Not complex.