Is This Video Evidence That Walmart Grossly Over-Ordered For The Holidays?

We’ve talked in the past about Walmart’s staffing and inventory issues, where some stores have empty shelves but full back rooms because there just aren’t enough employees around to deal with all the shelving. But a new video from an investment advisor firm claims to demonstrate that the nation’s largest retailer has so much leftover inventory from this holiday shopping season that it’s overflowing into the store.

The Vine video below was taken by the folks at Belus Capital Investors. According to the firm, this space with packed with loaded pallets is not the store room for a Walmart, but is actually the outdoor center of a store.

“[T]he company has stuffed its designated stockrooms too much with slow-moving inventory, for example large screen TVs, that a bit of creativity had to be tapped to store more truckloads of merchandise,” writes Belus. “Put all of this together and you get one read: higher than appreciated by the Street forward margin risk.”

This second video claims to show aisles still fully stocked with Christmas decorations days after the holiday:

Belus’ Brian Sozzi tells Mashable.com that Walmart likely purchased too much in the way of decorations and wrapping paper because the retailer is out of touch with its core, bargain-hunting customer.

“The Walmart mom is trying to figure out how to use the stuff from last year instead of buying new wrapping paper,” explains Sozzi.

In a bit of a silver lining for Walmart, Forbes predicts that the recent massive credit/debit card data breach at Target will result in Walmart, Costco and other competitors picking up shoppers who are either worried about visiting Target again or upset with the store for failing to keep their info secure.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist