Wal-Mart vows to hang onto new customers

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark., June 6 (UPI) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s new chief executive officer says the giant discounter will retain its recession momentum even after the economy improves.

CEO Mike Duke said Friday at the company's annual shareholder meeting in Fayetteville, Ark., that even though its stock his dipped 9 percent this year on fears that consumers will eventually return to higher-end stores, the chain will retain those buyers, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Pointing out that new customers make up 17 percent of Wal-Mart's first quarter sales -- just months after logging record 2008 revenues of $401 billion -- Duke told shareholders he believes those new customers will turn into permanent ones, recession or not.

"Our customers will stay with us when this economy turns around and they have more discretionary spending, I promise," said Duke, addressing his first Wal-Mart meeting after becoming only the fifth CEO in company history, the Journal reported.

"There is a 'new normal' in which people want to save money and are getting smarter about saving money," the Financial Times quoted Duke saying. "Never has there been a time when the strengths of our company were more aligned with what the world needs than right now."