LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc's U.S. customers are most worried about their own financial security and they are tending to spend even closer to the dates they receive their paychecks as the economy weakens, the retailer's U.S. division head said on Tuesday.
Personal financial security was the No 1 concern for 80 percent of Wal-Mart shoppers who were recently polled, up from 65 percent a few months ago, said Eduardo Castro-Wright, president and chief executive of the Wal-Mart's U.S. operations.
"Most consumers are worried about: 'Will I have enough to put food on the table so my family can eat?," he told attendees of a luncheon sponsored by Town Hall Los Angeles.
He said credit used as a form of payment at Wal-Mart is falling and that the decline is expected to reach into the double digits this year.
U.S. consumers have been cutting spending for months due to falling home values, job losses, higher prices for basics like food and fuel, and a global credit crisis.
Wal-Mart's sales typically surge around pay periods at the beginning and middle of the month. Castro-Wright said that spike has become more profound as consumers' budgets become more stressed.
One troubling trend, he said, is that for the first time the company is seeing a paycheck-related spike in sales of baby formula, suggesting consumers are rushing to buy such necessities as soon as they have the cash.
(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein)
