What Wal-Mart knows about the economy.

Art Cashin passes along this tidbit about how the poor on welfare are coping with the recession.  From the CEO of Wal-Mart: 

I don't need to tell you that our customer remains challenged…You need not go farther than one of our stores on midnight at the end of the month. And it's real interesting to watch, about 11 p.m. customers start to come in and shop, fill their grocery basket with basic items – baby formula, milk, bread, eggs – and continue to shop and mill about the store until midnight when government electronic benefits cards get activated, and then the checkout starts and occurs. And our sales for those first few hours on the first of the month are substantially and significantly higher.

I'm so glad the recession ended last year.

How's that HopeN'Change working out for you?