BENTONVILLE, Ark., Dec. 6 -- Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) reported net sales for the four-week and 43-week periods ending Nov. 30, 2007, and Dec. 1, 2006, respectively, as follows (dollars in billions):
Net Sales
4 Weeks Ended Percent 43 Weeks Ended Percent
11/30/2007 12/1/2006 Change 11/30/2007 12/1/2006 Change
Wal-Mart Stores $20.165 $19.244 4.8% $192.347 $181.456 6.0%
Sam's Club 3.620 3.331 8.7% 36.160 33.797 7.0%
International 7.933 6.690 18.6% 73.024 62.356 17.1%
Total Company $31.718 $29.265 8.4% $301.531 $277.609 8.6%
Comparable store sales for the four-week and 43-week periods ending Nov. 30, 2007, and Dec. 1, 2006, respectively, were as follows:
Four Weeks Comparable Store Sales
Without Fuel With Fuel Fuel Impact
11/30/2007 12/1/2006 11/30/2007 12/1/2006 11/30/2007 12/1/2006
Wal-Mart
Stores 1.0% -0.8% 1.0% -0.8% 0.0% 0.0%
Sam's
Club 4.3% 1.4% 7.1% 0.3% 2.8% -1.1%
Total
U.S. 1.5% -0.5% 1.9% -0.7% 0.4% -0.2%
Forty-three Weeks Comparable Store Sales
Without Fuel With Fuel Fuel Impact
11/30/2007 12/1/2006 11/30/2007 12/1/2006 11/30/2007 12/1/2006
Wal-Mart
Stores 0.8% 1.8% 0.8% 1.8% 0.0% 0.0%
Sam's
Club 4.8% 2.8% 5.0% 2.7% 0.2% -0.1%
Total
U.S. 1.4% 2.0% 1.4% 2.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Wal-Mart Stores
Grocery and pharmacy continued to drive strong comparable store sales during the November four-week period. In addition, Wal-Mart had very solid "Black Friday" sales across the store, from entertainment items to sleepwear. Customers responded both in-store and online to Wal-Mart's price leadership initiatives.
"We're happy with our sales performance, but more important, we are pleased with our customer satisfaction scores," said Eduardo Castro-Wright, Wal-Mart Stores U.S. president and chief executive officer. "We conducted more than 20,000 surveys among Wal-Mart customers on 'Black Friday' and our overall customer experience scores were high. We plan to offer that same level of customer service and price leadership, including secret in-store specials, throughout the Christmas season."
Comparable store sales in apparel improved during the four-week November period from the previous period, driven by performance in outerwear. With colder temperatures, customers responded to Wal-Mart's merchandise offerings and prices. The home category remained soft.
Sam's Club
In the November four-week period, Sam's Club had strengths in a number of holiday and gift-giving categories, including electronics and video games. Other strong categories across the clubs included produce, bakery, juice and water, and consumable items. Moving into the December five-week period, sales of toys and Christmas seasonal items are meeting expectations.
An increase in gas prices over last November of almost 40 percent, combined with higher volume fuel sales versus the prior year period, resulted in a positive 2.8 percent fuel impact on Sam's Club's comparable club sales. Increases in average ticket and small business traffic drove comparable club sales performance.
International
During the November period, the Company's operations in the United Kingdom, Brazil, China and Argentina continued their recent positive performance. A weak consumption environment continues to affect sales growth figures in Mexico, particularly in terms of average ticket. However, the customer count for Mexico's units continues to increase.
Guidance
The Company expects the comparable store sales of its U.S. operations for the December five-week reporting period to be between one and three percent, said Tom Schoewe, executive vice president and chief financial officer. The December five-week period runs from Dec. 1, 2007 through Jan. 4, 2008.
As previously noted, the Company reports net sales and comparable store sales consistent with the National Retail Federation (NRF) calendar. The NRF calendar included 53 weeks for the most recently completed year, but includes only 52 weeks this year. The weekly sales information for the four-week and 43-week periods ended Dec. 1, 2006 reported in this release match the comparable weeks in the retail calendar for the current fiscal year. However, these four-week and 43-week comparable store sales periods reported for last year ended on Nov. 24, 2006, one week earlier.
The Company has posted on its Web site, http://www.walmartstores.com/investors, a "reclassification" document showing prior year comparable store sales re-grouped to match the comparable weeks for the current reporting calendar. The reclassified total U.S. comparable store sales for the December 2006 five-week period ending Jan. 5, 2007 is 2.6 percent, excluding the impact of fuel.
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. operates Wal-Mart discount stores, supercenters, Neighborhood Markets and Sam's Club locations in the United States. The Company operates in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom. The Company's securities are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol WMT. More information about Wal-Mart can be found by visiting http://www.walmartstores.com. Online merchandise sales are available at http://www.walmart.com and http://www.samsclub.com.
Photos and B-roll video footage on Black Friday sales is available to media at http://video.walmartstores.com/video/?id=917.
This release contains statements that Wal-Mart believes are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that are intended to enjoy the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements provided by that act. These forward-looking statements relate to our customer service and price leadership throughout the Christmas season and our management's expectation for comparable store sales for the December five-week reporting period to end Jan. 4, 2008. These statements are identified by use of the words "plan" and "expects," in these statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, domestically and internationally, including consumer spending patterns and debt levels, unemployment levels, fuel prices, inflation levels, weather conditions, competitive pressures and other risks. We discuss certain of these matters and other risk factors more fully in our filings with the SEC, including our last Annual Report on Form 10-K. This release should be read in conjunction with that Annual Report on Form 10-K and certain other Company filings with the SEC through the date of this release. The Company urges you to consider all of these risks, uncertainties and other factors carefully in evaluating these forward-looking statements made in this release and not to place undue reliance on such statements. As a result of these and other matters, including changes in facts, assumptions not being realized or other circumstances, our actual results may differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements included in this release are made only as of the date of this release, and we undertake no obligation to update it to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.
SOURCE Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
-0- 12/06/2007
/CONTACT: Investor Relations, +1-479-273-8446, or Carol Schumacher,
+1-479-277-1498, or Anthony Clark, +1-479-277-9558, or Media Relations, John
Simley, 1-800-331-0085, all of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc./
/Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070927/WALMARTCOMLOGO
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com/
/Web site: http://www.walmartstores.com
http://video.walmartstores.com/video/?id=917
http://www.walmart.com
http://www.samsclub.com /
(WMT)
CO: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
ST: Arkansas
IN: REA HOU
SU:
SA-JA
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8510 12/06/2007 07:31 EST http://www.prnewswire.com
