Wal-Mart lowers August forecasts
Hurricane closures hit sales performance
Wal-Mart has lowered its sales forecast for August after a tough week for its US operations.
The world’s biggest retailer is now forecasting same store sales growth of between 0 and 2 per cent for the month as a whole. One of the big factors to hit the business was the arrival of Hurricane Charley in Florida, which led to the closure of about 75 stores and hit trade at 200 in total.
Wal-Mart said that so far, 300 truckloads of water and 100 truckloads of disaster-related merchandise have been shipped to the region, both in preparation for the hurricane and to support people in the areas hit.
In addition to the problems caused by the hurricane Wal-Mart reported that its sales of back-to-school products are not hitting company targets, with school uniforms, athletic shoes and autumn fashions the best performers in this category. Food, household paper products and pet supplies are also selling well on year-on-year comparisons.
