Raining On Wal-Mart's Weather Excuse

When a retailer blames weather for its weakness, and the business media reports it without a raised eyebrow -- well, let's just say the storm cloud in my soul darkens a shade.

But there are always silver linings, and on Thursday we were granted the perfect opportunity to perform some rough justice on this nonsense. In a daring display of common sense, the Business Press Maven is going to use basic statistics to disprove a ridiculous claim made by a national retailer that was dutifully transcribed for public consumption by the business media.

Early Thursday morning, Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart(WMT Quote) claimed that the weather made them report disappointing January same-store sales and that excuse was passed along by the dutiful stenographers working at Reuters, MarketWatch and other places.

I'll submit this MarketWatch effort for your initial disapproval:

"Starting at the top, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said that unfavorable weather led to a January same-store sales increase, excluding fuel sales, of just 0.5% from a year earlier. That compares with an average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Financial of same-store sales -- those at locations open at least a year -- rising 2%."

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