CHEAP EGGS STINK

Walmart ‘deflated’

Walmart laid an egg on Thursday — a big, fat cheap ol’ egg.

The discount retailer lost about $7 billion in value — or 3.4 percent off its share price — after just missing Wall Street’s forecast for revenue in the third quarter, a shortfall executives blamed on food deflation.

That’s right, cheap eggs, milk and other products tripped up the mighty Walmart, the company said.

The revenue shortfall in the fiscal third quarter came despite great efforts by the Bentonville, Ark., chain over the past several years to woo more shoppers to its stores — and away from Internet retailers like Amazon.

The number of added shoppers in its aisles has decelerated for the past three quarters — from a 1.2 percent bump last spring to a 0.7 percent gain in the fall.

Overall, Walmart revenue edged up less than 1 percent, to $118.2 billion. Wall Street expected $118.69 billion.

This growth “comes despite persistent market deflation in food,” and “unseasonably warm weather,” said Walmart Chief Financial Officer Brett Biggs in a statement. Groceries account for 56 percent of Walmart’s sales.

Over the past year, the su- perstore chain has been investing in paying its workforce higher wages, improving their training and lowering its prices in a bare-knuckles fight with Amazon.

Some industry experts had even suggested earlier in the year that Walmart might be the cause of lower food prices as other retailers tried to keep pace with its cuts over the past six months.

Milk prices, for example, are about 10 percent lower, while egg prices have fallen by 50 percent this year. Beef prices have moo-ved to a four-year low.

The decline in the Consumer Price Index for athome food accelerated to 2.3 percent in October from 0.2 percent in August, according to government data released Thursday.

“Deflation is definitely an issue for Walmart,” said Edward Jones analyst Brian Yarbrough, pointing out that Walmart’s grocery prices used to be discounted by 15 percent and are now just 3 percent to 7 percent lower than its competitors.

Food deflation cost Walmart 150 basis points in sales, the company said.

A bright spot for the company was the 20.6 percent bump in online sales from a year ago, helped in part by its purchase of Jet.com.