Wal-Mart's Wayward Strategy

So Wal-Mart (WMT - commentary - Cramer's Take) just bagged everyone on Wall Street with this press release about the $4 drugs. The great Wal-Mart panicked everyone out of Walgreen (WAG - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Rite Aid (RAD - commentary - Cramer's Take) as well as a host of other pharmacy-benefit managers with this trick about lower prices.

It worked. The press bought it. The Street bought it.

And people sold.

This was so predictable it is painful. It was so obvious. Wal-Mart hired a PR firm, and the firm has gone crazy trying to change the image of this wayward retailer.

Now Walgreen is back; Rite Aid is much higher. You must remember this the next time Wal-Mart issues a release. Wal-Mart is like the old Soviet Union: It can't crush its enemies anymore.

If you missed Walgreen or Rite Aid, don't worry. Wal-Mart is addicted to releases. There will be another opportunity right down the road.

At the time of publication, Cramer had no positions in any of the stocks mentioned.

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