World's Richest Family Loses $19 Billion in Walmart Wipeout

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

(Bloomberg) -- The Walton family fortune tumbled almost $19 billion on Tuesday after Walmart Inc. slashed its profit outlook.

Walmart, controlled by the family, fell 11% in New York trading after the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company reported earnings that lagged analysts’ estimates. Soaring inflation heaped pressure on the retailing giant’s profit margins in the first quarter, testing the company’s appetite to raise prices.

The family’s late patriarch, Sam Walton, centered the business around a discount ethos that has in the past helped buoy its stock during recessionary times. Walton’s three surviving children, Alice, Jim and Rob, daughter-in-law Christy and Christy’s son, Lukas, own just under half the retailer, giving them a combined net worth of about $212 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The family, which owns its stake through various trusts, has stepped up its stock sales in recent years. They unloaded $6.2 billion in shares last year, which the company has said is part of a strategy to keep the family’s stake under 50% amid buybacks.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/world-s-richest-family-loses-19-billion-in-walmart-wipeout/ar-AAXnYu3

[Takket]

1. There is literally nothing they could possibly desire in life that they still cannot afford

Which is why we need a wealth tax.

[jimfields33]

8. They'll have it back and more in two years.

[inthewind21]

10. They'll

Never miss it.

[In It to Win It]

2. They can pick themselves up by the bootstraps

[bucolic_frolic]

3. Squeezed consumers stopped buying consumer goods, so they raised prices on food to make it up

And now that is driving traffic away. Plus stores are crawling with pickers so the labor bill is way up.

I think this a durable trend.

[leftieNanner]

5. "crawling with pickers.."

What does this expression mean? I've never heard it.

[bucolic_frolic]

7. Employees filling containers with goods for online consumer orders

and they're all over the aisles. Retailers are still struggling with how to cost the labor involved. Some online orders are free, some charge a flat fee each time, some a signup fee and lower pickup fees. But these employees with their large footprint carts with many bags and baskets of orders are clogging the aisles. Foot traffic consumers are effected. I don't quite know why they can't fill them from the stockrooms. They truck it all to the shelves, then they pick it from the shelves and take it to the storeroom for boxing and pickup.

[LoisB]

4. Awww...

[moondust]

6. Is there a food bank in Bentonville?

Poor things gotta eat so they can do all that hard werk.




I would guess the real victims of inflation will probably be small businesses as people reduce their driving and spending.

[TomSlick]

9. The Walton family will be fine. They have more money than they can possibly spend.

Besides which, Walmart stock will recover soon enough. I don't agree with much of Walmart corporate policy but it is a well run company with no competitors that threaten the core business.

[inthewind21]

11. What

A well run company?. Correct about the no competitors, they put them ALL out of business.

[TomSlick]

12. As I said, I disagree with many of Walmart's policies but

to the extent the goal of a publicly-held business is to make money for the shareholders, Walmart is uniquely well run.

Walmart was able to put local competitors out of business because Walmart's economies of scale allowed it to have lower operating expense and, therefore, could offer goods at lower prices than smaller local businesses. Walmart has grown to have such a large percentage of the retail market for consumer goods, it can demand lower costs of good sold from suppliers. Suppliers will not necessarily accept the same costs of goods paid by Walmart from smaller merchants. As a result, local merchants have a higher cost of goods sold than Walmart. In turn, this increases the margin between Walmart's prices and those charged by local merchants. A spiral is established where Walmart has more and more advantages over the local merchants. Walmart's success in overwhelming the retail consumer market is the result of unchecked capitalism.

We will not convince the majority of Americans that they should be happy to pay higher prices for consumer goods in order to foster local business. As a result democracy protects Walmart from any limitations on its advantages under unchecked capitalism.

Don't worry about the Walmart shareholders. They will be fine.

[MissMillie]

13. $19B???

Don't they typically make that much in one week?