Wal-Mart sticks with cautious growth forecasts
US food sales outperform general merchandise
Wal-mart is staying with relatively cautious same-store sales growth forecasts for February.
The world’s biggest retailer said its comparative sales for the US are still estimated to be in the 2 to 4 per cent range for February.
Wal-Mart’s food sales were stronger than general merchandise, although there were strong sales of Valentine’s ranges in the week to February 18. Higher customer traffic rather than increased basket size drove comparative sales growth.
Last week, Wal-Mart said US comparable sales for the three months to January 31 grew by 1.5 per cent, up by 1.4 per cent in Wal-Mart stores and by 2 per cent in the Sam’s Club warehouse chain.
Wal-Mart, with more than 3,500 stores across the US, is currently seeing same store growth lag behind that of number two discounter Target, which has just over 1,300 stores an reported same store growth of 5.4 per cent for the quarter.
