Walmarts like a small country

[ballen0351]

Saw this today I was amazed:

We compiled some facts about Wal-Mart that will blow your mind:

• Wal-Mart averages a profit of $1.8 million every hour.

• 35 million people shop at Wal-Mart every day, as much as the population of Canada.

• Wal-Mart's $316 billion U.S. retail sales exceed those of Kroger (KR +0.40%), Target (TGT -0.29%), Costco (COST -0.52%) and Walgreens (WAG -0.29%) combined.

• The average Wal-Mart supercenter sells 140,000 individual items.

• Wal-Mart opened between four and five new stores every week in 2012.

• The Walton family is worth $150 billion, about as much as Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Michael Bloomberg combined.

• Wal-Mart commonly receives 25 applications for every open job.

• Between Wal-Mart's opening in 1962 and 2002, the number of single-store retailers in the U.S. declined 55%.

• Wal-Mart accounts for 25% of Clorox's (CLX +0.59%) total sales.

• Wal-Mart's top-selling item in 2012 was the banana.

• 90% of Americans live within 15 minutes of a Wal-Mart.

• Wal-Mart's net sales were $466 billion in 2012. That's more than Argentina's GDP.

• Wal-Mart has 2.2 million employees, more than the population of Houston.

• If Wal-Mart were a country, it would be the 26th largest economy in the world.

http://money.msn.com/investing/post--14-wal-mart-facts-that-will-blow-your-mind

 

[Big Don]

troll bait

 

[arnisador]

Bananas? They have awful produce, and the people who shop for food there are not looking for healthy food!

 

[Big Don]

bananas? They have awful produce, and the people who shop for food there are not looking for healthy food!

troll bait

q.e.d.

 

[K-man]

And did did they pay their share of tax?

6. Wal-Mart (WMT)
Pre-tax earnings: $24.4 Billion


Tax Provision: $7.9 Billion (33%)


Actual Taxes Paid to U.S. federal government: $4.6 Billion (19%)


Wal-Mart paid $4.6 billion to the U.S. federal government in 2011 and deferred paying an additional $1.4 billion. It paid $743 million to state and local government, $1.4 billion to foreign governments.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/...rations-tax-rate_n_1746817.html#slide=1335361

 

[ballen0351]

Bananas? They have awful produce, and the people who shop for food there are not looking for healthy food!

Yeah that surprised me too.

 

[ballen0351]

And did did they pay their share of tax?

Any reason you would think they didnt?

 

[K-man]

Any reason you would think they didnt?

Yep! As I posted, they paid 19% when the nominal rate is 35%. In fairness they did pay more than some of the other top ten earners. Is it any wonder the US can't balance its budget when these companies are not paying their way?

GE 5%
IBM 1%
ConocoPhillps 8%
Wells Fargo 14%
Wal-Mart 19%
Morgan Chase 14%
Microsoft 11%
Apple 11%
Chevron 4%
Exxon Mobil 2%

Average for top 10 most profitable companies ... 9%

But that's the average of the averages. The real figure of percentage paid is 7.84%.

But the 10 companies all paid much less than the nominal corporate tax rate of 35 percent -- a number that investor and tax-the-rich advocate Warren Buffett has dismissed as "a myth," but one that presidential front-runners Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have both proposed to lower.

The effective corporate tax rate has been on its way down for decades, recently hitting a 40-year low even as corporate profits have reached an all-time high. Many of the companies that have seen their tax rates fall in recent years -- including Exxon Mobil, Verizon, General Electric and AT&T -- are among the biggest spenders when it comes to lobbying, according to a recent analysis by the Sunlight Foundation.

Yep! I reckon that's reason enough.
:asian:

 

[granfire]

Bananas? They have awful produce, and the people who shop for food there are not looking for healthy food!

might vary from store to store, but awful is not the term I'd use. Bananas are the cheapest fruit/produce in the store, at around 50cents +/- a pound, while the cheapest apples is at least 99 cents, but more in the buck 50 range.

 

[ballen0351]

Yep! As I posted, they paid 19% when the nominal rate is 35%. In fairness they did pay more than some of the other top ten earners. Is it any wonder the US can't balance its budget when these companies are not paying their way?

GE 5%
IBM 1%
ConocoPhillps 8%
Wells Fargo 14%
Wal-Mart 19%
Morgan Chase 14%
Microsoft 11%
Apple 11%
Chevron 4%
Exxon Mobil 2%

Average for top 10 most profitable companies ... 9%

But that's the average of the averages. The real figure of percentage paid is 7.84%.


Yep! I reckon that's reason enough.
:asian:

They pay what they are told to pay. Just like everyone else. 35% is pretty much robbery to begin with. So good for them on using the system to pay less. I'd pay less if I could figure out how.

 

[ballen0351]

might vary from store to store, but awful is not the term I'd use. Bananas are the cheapest fruit/produce in the store, at around 50cents +/- a pound, while the cheapest apples is at least 99 cents, but more in the buck 50 range.

Thats kinda crazy since bananas need to be imported and apples are local you would think its be flip flopped price wise. But then again nothing about food prices makes sense to me.

 

[K-man]

They pay what they are told to pay. Just like everyone else. 35% is pretty much robbery to begin with. So good for them on using the system to pay less. I'd pay less if I could figure out how.

And therein lies the problem. The big guys cheat the system and the little guys have to shoulder the burden. The instead of holding the cheats to account you condone their actions and say you wish you could pay less too. Then you complain about the country's unsustainable debt. Some of you guys should study accounting 101.
:asian:

 

[DennisBreene]

Bananas? They have awful produce, and the people who shop for food there are not looking for healthy food!

Those of us who live in rural areas have few other options. You can buy healthy food there, you just have to pass on the crap. As for taxes; their size gives them leverage. The stores are places outside of incorporated cities and townships so they avoid local sales taxes. I suspect that new stores often go into areas where the local governments offer tax incentives to attract them, just as with other large employers. I haven't heard of the chain being brought up on charges of tax evasion so I assume that what they are doing is legal (until proven otherwise). The big difference; we get one vote each, they can buy a seat at the legislators dinner table.

 

[ballen0351]

And therein lies the problem. The big guys cheat the system and the little guys have to shoulder the burden. The instead of holding the cheats to account you condone their actions and say you wish you could pay less too. Then you complain about the country's unsustainable debt. Some of you guys should study accounting 101.
:asian:

Its not cheating if you follow the rules that your given. No govt should be taking a 3rd of your income that's crazy. I complain about the debt because the Govt is reckless with the money they are given. To the Govt a spending cut is "well we were going to borrow 700 billion but now were only borrowing 600 billion". That's not a cut

 

[granfire]

Thats kinda crazy since bananas need to be imported and apples are local you would think its be flip flopped price wise. But then again nothing about food prices makes sense to me.

I believe bananas grow year round, apples are harvested twice a year (yeah, they, too are shipped around the world, the summer harvest usually originating from Chile) and in between they need to be warehoused in a climate controlled facility

 

[arnisador]

Our experience with their produce has been very negative--but we live in a small town and I shopped there last night (but not for bananas, which we get from a local, one-location-only grocery store).

 

[K-man]

Its not cheating if you follow the rules that your given. No govt should be taking a 3rd of your income that's crazy. I complain about the debt because the Govt is reckless with the money they are given. To the Govt a spending cut is "well we were going to borrow 700 billion but now were only borrowing 600 billion". That's not a cut

They are not taking a third of anyone's income. These are companies. Companies have all sorts of perks and benefits before they declare a bottom line. As to the rate of tax. That is open to change if governments want to do that but if your massive companies are just ripping the money off the system, don't blame your Government for having to print and borrow money. Alowing tax cheats to prosper is stealing from everyone. Why do you think these companies are spending such massive amounts of money lobbying?
:asian:

 

[ballen0351]

They are not taking a third of anyone's income. These are companies. Companies have all sorts of perks and benefits before they declare a bottom line. As to the rate of tax. That is open to change if governments want to do that but if your massive companies are just ripping the money off the system, don't blame your Government for having to print and borrow money. Alowing tax cheats to prosper is stealing from everyone. Why do you think these companies are spending such massive amounts of money lobbying?
:asian:

Its not cheating if you follow the rules. That's thr opposite of cheating. The govt needs to figure out how to live with the money it takes in and stop borrowing money. You know like the rest of us do. If we can't afford everything then start making cuts. Do we really need to fund a study on duck penis when we are broke?

 

[K-man]

Its not cheating if you follow the rules. That's thr opposite of cheating. The govt needs to figure out how to live with the money it takes in and stop borrowing money. You know like the rest of us do. If we can't afford everything then start making cuts. Do we really need to fund a study on duck penis when we are broke?

Have you looked at elder's thread?
http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/sh...alth-Inequality-In-America-and-its-perception
How do you think the top 1% got that money? Who makes the rules that allow such inequitable distribution of wealth to occur?
:asian:

 

[ballen0351]

Have you looked at elder's thread?
http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/sh...alth-Inequality-In-America-and-its-perception
How do you think the top 1% got that money? Who makes the rules that allow such inequitable distribution of wealth to occur?
:asian:

More crying and jealousy about the 1%. Walmart pays what they are told to pay. They pay more then their fair share. Fact is our govt has a spending problem not an income problem.