MuniLand

WMT had the worst sales start to a month in seven years as payroll-tax increases hit shoppers – @bloombergnews mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-1…

— Lauren Lyster (@LaurenLyster) February 15, 2013

We don’t need to wait around for the macro data to tell us that the economy is slowing. The signals are coming loud and clear from the micro data. Bloomberg reports:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. had the worst sales start to a month in seven years as payroll-tax increases hit shoppers already battling a slow economy, according to internal e-mails obtained by Bloomberg News.

“In case you haven’t seen a sales report these days, February MTD sales are a total disaster,” Jerry Murray, Wal-Mart’s vice president of finance and logistics, said in a Feb. 12 e-mail to other executives, referring to month-to-date sales. “The worst start to a month I have seen in my ~7 years with the company.”

Reuters reports on state sales tax revenues, which are a key gauge of consumption:

After workers and labor unions protested Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, last Friday, The New York Times quoted a union organizer describing the effort as “open-source striking.” An alleged 1,000 protests took place across the country. But the real battle was happening on the ideological field between conservative and liberal pundits. Many claims were made to defend the company’s business practices. The least sound of these claims was made by the Reason Foundation’s Peter Suderman:

4. Obama adviser Jason Furman has estimated the welfare boost of Walmart’s low food prices alone is about $50b a year.

— Peter Suderman (@petersuderman) November 24, 2012

The numbers in this claim seem very inflated, seeing as the entire U.S. spending level in grocery stores was $407 billion for 2011, according to the USDA. Suderman’s claim would mean that Walmart saves the entire nation 12.2% on their food costs. Really? Should we ask Walmart to administer Medicaid too?