Wal-Mart's Performance in the Context of the American Economy - Statistics Project Example

Wal-Mart has grown over the years to be the world’s biggest company in terms of sales and revenue. This growth, however, has been mostly centered in the American markets. Thus we can say that the fate of Wal-Mart is usually tied to the performance of the American Economy. The performance of Wal-Mart over the years has not been far from impeccable. The company has used its excellent management systems along with its superb human resources to build a competitive advantage, which is still for the most part unchallenged.

The credit crunch in the American economy, however, has played a very negative role for the American economy. The affected part was indeed the financial sector itself. Some of the world’s largest financial institutions were totally destroyed. The banking and financial institutions such as AIG and Lehman brothers were totally destroyed by this financial crisis. The effects on the Detroit car industry were even worse. Falling demand and unavailability of credit reduced sales and forced bankruptcies and closures.

The focus therefore automatically shifted to Wal-Mart. The industry gurus had their close eye on the performance of Wal-Mart. The company was being scrutinized for its performance in the wake of the financial recession. In this lies the importance of the financial statements of the year 2009.  Performance review In the year under question, the revenues showed a considerable increase. The net revenue showed an almost 7% percent increase and increased to $255.7 billion. The increase in revenue is meaningless until the profits also show an increase.

This is because revenues are sometimes increased due to inflation factors. The operating income for Wal-Mart however also showed a considerable increase. The amount showed a 7.1%, increasing to an incredible 18.8 billion dollars. This increase in revenue and operating income has also been due to better customer services by Wal-Mart. The company currently owns almost 3600 hundred stores in more than 50 different states of America. The company announced that it would add another 700 stores to this already formidable distribution chain.