Lee Scott
Lee Scott
continues economy forward help holiday improve lower quarter record sales satisfied successful
Our sales were lower than we are satisfied with but the economy continues to improve and we are well positioned for the holidays. With the help of our associates, I look forward to another record quarter and a successful holiday season,
current difficult earnings economic environment expect given goal growth half improvement leverage market meet original remains sales second share year
Our goal for the second half of the year remains double-digit earnings growth,. However, given the current economic environment this will be difficult to achieve, ... We expect earnings growth in the second half will show improvement over the first half of this year as we leverage our sales and market share gains, but the growth may not meet our original goals.
continues current customer difficult expense gas higher improve leverage miss plan prices stores
Wal-Mart Stores did miss their plan as our customer continues to be impacted by higher gas prices and it is difficult to improve our expense leverage in the current environment.
cautious consumer improvement remain seems until
The consumer still seems to us to be very cautious and probably will remain so until we see improvement in employment,
american-businessman articles local positive stores voted
Because in our clippings I see a lot of articles that are very positive about all the stores that are voted by local communities.
concerned customers economy economy-and-economics
As the economy has slowed customers have become more concerned about price.
We see that we can be better for communities than we have been in the past.
american-businessman combining interface next products stores
More and more, more and more digital, in particular, I think you'll see in our stores next year, as we start combining these digital products and they interface with each other, you'll see that represented in Wal-Mart.
changes
Many changes we see now are very positive.
coming feet fiscal footage growth history increase largest million percent planned represents retail square year
The planned square footage growth for the coming year represents approximately 46 million square feet of new retail space, which will be the largest square footage increase in the company's history and a 9 percent increase over the fiscal 2002 total,
companies core looking sticking succeeded successful values
We did not become one of the most successful companies in the world by doing things the same way for 44 years. We have succeeded by sticking to our core values while always looking to improve.
american-businessman bad company indicative manager somehow store
Or if you have one store manager that makes a bad decision, is that indicative that that is somehow what your company represents? No.
accelerate changes continue john largest segment
John will continue to accelerate changes in the largest segment of our business.
results
Our results were not up to Wal-Mart standards,