Walmart Chief Defends Investments in Labor, Stores and the Web

In the last year, Walmart has stopped selling Confederate-flag merchandise as well as assault rifles, has publicly supported gay rights and, after years of criticism, has raised its minimum starting wage to $9 an hour.

Now, progressives may be cheering, but Wall Street is not. Investors fear that Walmart’s heavy investments in labor, in the Internet and in discounts will weigh on the retailer’s short-term earnings — and many are running the other way.

“Walmart expects a return from these wagers,” Michael Lasser, a retail analyst at UBS, wrote in a note. Still, “it’s unclear if its investment of $1.5 billion in labor and ‘several billion dollars’ in pricing will push it ahead of others, or just keep pace.”

..  Walmart.com is set to offer 10 million products by the end of the year. That is impressive, until you consider that a shopper will find an estimated 300 million items for sale on Amazon.com.

.. Last year, Amazon sold almost $90 billion worth of products online, compared with just $12.2 billion Walmart sold through its website. E-commerce still makes up only about 2.5 percent of Walmart’s annual sales, and its growth online is slowing.