All of this is intended to get a larger share of the wallet.
I love the inventory turnover. But you want to know what's even more important than that? It's the product availability. If you're able to do that I think you can figure out how quickly the ROI improves.
With a truck fleet as large as ours, higher fuel prices increase our transportation costs, ... The bigger impact is on our customer, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck. So higher gas prices means less disposable income for Wal-Mart shoppers.
With Easter being three weeks later this year than 2005, we expected weaker sales in March. We anticipate the April four-week period to be stronger, with comp sales of 4 to 6 percent.
This impacted our operating profit by $30 million and our total utility expense rose by $100 million in the quarter,
Right now, the middle of the range seems reasonable,
As fuel prices go up, it dampens our store sales.
We have just under 1,000 projects in the pipeline for the U.S. alone, or three years worth of future growth planned. We'll do it through new stores, through acquisitions and by growing sales in our existing stores.
We believe the initiatives we are undertaking in merchandising and operations will improve the Wal-Mart customer experience.
Wal-Mart's sales have doubled and earnings have more than doubled over the past five years but we haven't done a good job in communicating that,