Wal-Mart .. the store that cares? Umm.. No.

According to CNNmoney.com Wal-Mart announced that it will chop prices up to 30% to "keep its cash-strapped consumers excited about shopping". Wal-Mart's chief merchandising officer said, "We all know economic times are tough so our plan is to help with added savings throughout the year, focusing especially on what people want, when they need it,". Isn't that considerate of them?

What I found intriguing was that this benevolence is only good for this week, a coincidence that it is the week leading up to the Super Bowl. If the company is truly concerned about the plight of cash strapped consumers, why only a week worth of cost cutting? And why are they particularly focusing on items that are traditionally bought to go with the "big" game?

I don't think I am the only one that recognizes that this is nothing more than the ole "traffic generation" ploy to help with their own retail sales numbers, and has nothing to do with concern for us poor cash strapped consumers.

According to Melissa O'Brien the Wal-Mart spokeswoman, this month's week long (now how you have a a month a week long... ) additional price cuts are "the first of more to come". If you are a worker for Wal-Mart you just have to be asking if the up to 30% price reductions will have to come out of some of your compensation, creating more pressure on the cash strapped consumer.