“In my mind, there is no doubt that this is Wal-Mart time. This is the kind of environment that Sam Walton built this company for.”
— Lee Scott, president and CEO of Wal-Mart, in The New York Times today. Consumers are going for value and there’s no better evidence than Wal-Mart’s October sales. Same-store sales at Wal-Mart increased 2.4%, beating expectations. The stock dropped only 1% on a 443-point down day for the Dow. And it’s up in after-hours trading. Meanwhile, Target’s per-store sales dropped 4.8%–more than anaysts predicted. Gap and J.C. Penney took even bigger hits, and even sales at Costco fell 1%. No mercy these days.