In an Oct 3, 2007 WSJ article titled "Wal-Mart Era Wanes Amid Big Shifts in Retail" by Gary McWilliams a casual reader might get the impression that Wal-Mart is on the road to obscurity but as Mark Twain famously said "The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated." The article opens with the summary that the Wal-Mart era of being retails overwhelming business and social influence in America is drawing to a close. While it is true Wal-Mart's same store sales have declined from a steady 5% to a more recent 1.3% one must still consider their total sales are more than 4 times larger than rival Target and over 4 times larger than the U.S.'s 2nd largest grocer Kroger Co. It's clear Wal-Mart faces many challenges but it's also clear they are way ahead of their competition in terms of scale and total sales. Comparing same stores sales between Wal-Mart and Target requires more than just casual observation.

Wal-Mart remains a much desired destination for vendors to sell large quantities of product. Vendors who partner with Wal-Mart, study store level on-hand, and work proactively to have the right mix of product still stand to rack up huge sales. It's easy to look at the biggest company in a market and find problems... smart vendors look for the opportunities. And Wal-Mart is looking for vendors with high sell-thru products and a willingness to get into the details of store level data analysis.

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