Wal-Mart Facts

1. At 45, Wal-Mart is now middle aged. With sales of $345 billion last year in 5,779 stores in 13 countries, Wal-Mart employs 1.9 million people.

2. Walmart has the clout to dictate prices and package design to giant suppliers like Proctor & Gamble, Campbell Soup and Dell which rely on Wal-Mart's stores as one of their biggest, if not the biggest, distribution channel.

3. Last year, 2006, Wal-Mart reported same store sales (outlets open at least one year) growth at an anemic 1.9%. This is down from the double digits growth numbers of the 90's

4. The same growth, 1.9% was reported in July 2007 by Wal-Mart, trailing the industry average of 2.6%. Walmart blamed financial pressures on shoppers from high fuel prices and a weak housing market.

These factors didn't hobble Target, which posted 6.1% same store averages for the same period, Costco 7.6% or J. C. Penney's 10.8%.

5. Wal-Mart is a discounter that thrives on selling high volume of low margin goods at knock down prices in small town or near monopoly markets.

6. Wal-Mart's vaunted logistics prowess, the advantage for which it is most feared, is no longer able to keep the fastest moving inventory in stock.

7. Discriminating shoppers in its newest, urban markets are accustomed to higher quality standards, selection and customer service than Wal-Mart has ever had to offer.

8.  Wal-Mart is caught in the squeeze between "cheap-chic" stores like Target whose higher income clientele it has not been able to lure and the proliferation of "dollar stores" and super convenience stores nibbling away at its core customer base of 42 million lower income shoppers.

9. Wal-Mart is confronted with the daunting law of large numbers. It has to grow by $35 billion this year to post a respectable 10% growth rate. That means finding new revenue equal to the total sales of Disney or Intel.

10. If Wal-Mart is to avoid the fates of General Motors, Sears or Xerox, whose long records of success bred arrogance that blinded them to changes in the marketplace and doomed to fail at reinventing themselves, the company will need a top to bottom cultural makeover that will reject shoddy stores, outlets understaffed by poorly paid employees with little product knowledge. It will need a consistent drive to upgrade its merchandise without alienating its base of low income consumers.