With seven straight quarters of declining sales, Wal-mart said on Wednesday that its core shoppers are running out of money, faster than one year ago.
The retail giant is worried that rising gasoline prices are putting greater pressure on customers.
“We’re seeing core consumers under a lot of pressure,” said CEO Mike Duke at an event in New York, CNN reports. “There’s no doubt that rising fuel prices are having an impact.”
Lately, they’re “running out of money” at a faster clip, he said.
Duke said that in general, consumers shop at that beginning of the month when they receive their paychecks. But he was seeing a faster tapering off of shopping at the end of the month, more so this year, than in 2010.
Wal-mart said that in addition to competing on price, the company would be turning more aggressively to technology, particularly social networking, to drive sales.
So, whatever happened with that economic recovery?
