Wal-Mart Changes Its Mind
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., reported it is updating its previous sales estimate for the September reporting period. As a result of the monthly reconciliation process that Wal-Mart undergoes to determine its comparable sales percentage, Wal-Mart is revising its U.S. comparable sales estimate for the September 5-week reporting period (Saturday, Aug. 26 through Friday, Sept. 29) from 1.8 to 1.3 percent.
During the reconciliation process, the company determined there were approximately 235 Wal-Mart stores and Sam’s Clubs incorrectly coded for the calculation of the comparable sales estimate. The 1.3 percent revised comparable sales estimate reflects the correction for these stores and clubs. Total sales were not affected.
On top of Wal-Mart changing its sales estimates, Forbes is reporting that, “Just 10 weeks after launching its own version of MySpace, Wal-Mart shut down ‘The Hub.'”
The Hub was developed to be a Web site that teens could use to upload photos and videos, create Wal-Mart shopping lists and more. However, according to Forbes, the Hub site is now being redirected to www.walmart.com with a message that states, “Sorry, but the School Your Way promotion has ended. You will be redirected to www.walmart.com where you can always find the hottest fashions, music and more all year long.”
“It’s certainly possible that Wal-Mart always planned on shutting down the site after the back-to-school season. But the lack of interactivity between users, heavy-handed corporate messaging and parental notifications the site used could also have hastened its shutdown. After all, why would teens spend their time maintaining a Wal-Mart profile when News Corp.’s MySpace has none of the same restrictions?” reported Forbes.
The article also stated, “More than 3 percent of Walmart.com’s traffic came straight from MySpace in September 2006, according to Hitwise. Wal-Mart already has a profile on MySpace, but the company could sponsor promotions, including coupons and prize giveaways to encourage more users to befriend Wal-Mart, in turn driving more traffic to Walmart.com.”
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