Wal-Mart loses $3 billion

Especially in light of my Home Depot post, I found this bloggingstocks blog entry interesting. Now before you think this is another post of me hopping from one foot to the other gleefully cackling at Wal-Mart's misfortune, let me tell you my first thought when I read that article.

Wal-Mart did better than I would have expected.


Based on the national average, Wal-Mart would have lost $5.5 billion, and to be honest, if you would have asked me an hour before I read this I would have guessed that Wal-Mart performed worse than the national average on shrink (losses to theft).

Like many retailers, Wal-Mart is taking a more cavalier attitude towards shrink because paying for a decent loss prevention staff is expensive. They are more worried about getting sued by a shoplifter than stopping the theft. I'm sure the retail gangs love this, and it's another sign of the problem with our lawsuit-happy society. If you get hurt committing a crime, I say tough, you had it coming. In fact, I'd probably laugh if someone running out the door of a store with a tv got hit by truck.

But only a little. The tv might get broken.