Ho-Hum

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (Bentonville, Ark.) reported record earnings and sales for the quarter ended July 31, 2001. Net income for the quarter was $1.622 billion, up 1.6 percent from a year ago. Total sales increased 14.5 percent.

Comp-store sales were up 5.7 percent company-wide for the quarter. Wal-Mart Stores gained 5.6 percent and Sam's Club stores were up 5.7 percent. For the six months ended July 31, 2001, total company comp-store sales were up 4.7 percent — 4.6 percent for Wal-Mart Stores and 5.4 percent for Sam's.

As of July 31, 2001, the world's largest retail organization operated 1667 Wal-Mart stores, 998 Supercenters, 486 Sam's Clubs and 23 Neighborhood Markets in the United States. Internationally, the company operated units in Argentina (11), Brazil (21), Canada (177), China (14), Germany (93), Korea (7), Mexico (520), Puerto Rico (17) and the U.K. (246).