Making Ends Meet at Walmart

By GRETCHEN MORGENSON, NYT
MAY 10, 2014

This has not been a good year for Walmart shareholders. Amid a torrid market over the last 12 months, this giant retailer’s stock has flatlined, reflecting a slowdown in sales growth.

Nor was it a great year for many Walmart customers. In fact, the company cited a sluggish economy and cuts in federal food stamps for its weak sales increase of 1.6 percent in fiscal 2014. (Growth was 5 percent the previous year.) When you stop buying food, you know things are bad.

But Walmart executives aren’t feeling the same pain. While the company’s malaise is clearly laid out in financial tables — numbers don’t lie, after all — when it comes to figuring the performance pay of top executives, let’s just say the numbers can be made to fib.

I’ll let Walmart’s proxy filing explain.

(More here.)