"In my mind, there is no doubt that this is Wal-Mart time. This is the kind of environment that Sam Walton built this company for."
-- Lee Scott, president and CEO of Wal-Mart (WMT), in The New York Times today. Consumers are going for value and there's no better evidence than Wal-Mart's October sales. Same-store sales at Wal-Mart increased 2.4%, beating expectations. The stock dropped only 1% on a 443-point down day for the Dow. And it's up in after-hours trading. Meanwhile, Target's (TGT) per-store sales dropped 4.8%--more than anaysts predicted. Gap (GPS) and J.C. Penney (JCP) took even bigger hits, and even sales at Costco (COST) fell 1%. No mercy these days.
We've spent the last three months slicing and dicing the accomplishments and career histories of the most powerful women in business -- far too many facts and figures to fit into our Most Powerful Women package in the magazine. Here are 10 intriguing facts that we couldn't find space for in print:
Youngest woman to ever appear on the list: Marissa Mayer, VP of Search and User Experience at Google (GOOG). MORE
Jessica Shambora, Writer-Reporter - Sep 30, 2008 12:11 PM ET
Seeing Starbucks (SBUX), once America's model retailer, post its first-ever quarterly loss, you realize how dire the retail category is these days. Just about everybody except the low-price players like McDonald's (MCD), Wal-Mart (WMT) and TJX (TJX) are losing.
But beyond being a victim of the harsh economy, Starbucks made real mistakes. It dramatically over-expanded. And when Howard Schultz, who built the company from a tiny Seattle chain, fired CEO Jim MORE
Patricia Sellers - Jul 31, 2008 2:42 PM ET| Stocks finish higher for fourth straight week | ||
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In her first public interview since taking on the CEO gig at Yahoo, Marissa Mayer outlines her priorities both in and out of the company. Watch
Brenda Barnes famously quit a big job to be with her kids. Years later, a massive stroke nearly killed her--and her daughter returned the favor. Watch