Today's Outrage: Wal-Mart's Monthly Secret

In yet another abuse of investors by a bastion of Corporate America, Wal-Mart (WMT) abruptly decided to halt its monthly sales reports. I guess transparency is no longer convenient.

At least Wal-Mart is honest about the reasons for its decision, saying "we feel this will reduce intra-period volatility related to events such as calendar shifts."

That's a reference to how some months have more or less weekend days, or when holidays fall on different days in different months -- and other such occurrences that have been happening since calendars were invented.

Wal-Mart apparently doesn't think investors are smart enough to figure out how that shifts shopping patterns. It's a retail thing, you wouldn't understand.

This ranks up there with the other classic retail trick of blaming the weather any time sales don't live up to expectations. It rained too much and no one shops on bad days, or it was too sunny and no one shops on nice days. Or there was a swine flu outbreak, er, sorry pork producers, I meant to say H1N1.

Come on, Wal-Mart. Investors can handle the truth. They want the truth. They deserve the truth. Don't hide behind quarterly earnings. Be a leader.

But no, Wal-Mart doesn't want to be a leader. It says so in its press release today: "Reporting sales quarterly also places us in line with most other large retailers."