The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

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October 27, 2009

<img src=" http://www.joplinglobeonline.com/images/zope/tuesday.gif" border=0> Wal-Mart banking on cost-cutting plan

ROGERS, Ark. — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. CEO and President Mike Duke promised investors last week that the retailer’s aggressive price-cutting will not hurt its stock price, even as the company issued a modest forecast for U.S. expansion.

“This is not about trading one for another,” Duke said. “The two go hand-in-hand.”

He continued, “We will win in the area of retailing around the world.”

Duke was addressing investors during analyst meetings in Rogers, near the company’s headquarters in Bentonville, Ark.

The theme resonating from the meeting was how the world’s largest retailer was cutting costs and reinvesting those savings to lower prices for shoppers, which in turn drives sales. The executives said that increased revenue will in turn increase efficiencies and lower costs further.

Company officials expect sales in the current fiscal year, which ends Jan. 31, to be 1 to 2 percent higher than last fiscal year’s tally. That’s down from their original estimate of 5 to 7 percent.

The following year, they expect sales to accelerate 4 to 6 percent as the company benefits from opening new stores, and from easing deflation and more favorable currency exchanges.

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