Awww, Wal-Mart has lower profits. Because of gas prices, they claim. And it could be true, certainly there is an intuitive leap to be made between the price of fuel for families who can't readily afford say, the drive to work and the the trip to Wal-Mart if they aren't both in the same direction.

"Wal-Mart Stores did miss their plan as our customer continues to be impacted by higher gas prices and it is difficult to improve our expense leverage in the current environment," Lee Scott, the company's chief executive, said in a statement.
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Tom Schoewe, Wal-Mart's chief financial officer, said the company's utility expenses rose by $100 million, and its fuel costs were up $30 million, in the quarter.
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With its customers having grown accustomed to such consistently low prices, Wal-Mart could have a particularly hard time passing on the higher energy costs at the checkout lines.

"Wal Mart made a living jamming costs down on everyone else," Mr. Naroff said. "Now," he added, "how much can they absorb on their own?"

Why? Because once upon a time Darth Cheney pooh-poohed the need for better fuel economy and told everyone to run out and buy an SUV, reinforcing years and years of governmental insistence that standards on paper were the same as standards in practice. Now that's coming back to bite them in the ass, as most Red State political decisions do, hey aren't the Red State republicans the ones who hate that "if it feels good, do it" shit?

Hoist meet Petard.