The Fortune 500: Fortunate U.S. Consumers

Meandering the office environs prior to a business meeting last week, I came across a May, 2012 issue of Fortune Magazine.  The front page headline caught my eye:  America’s Largest Corporations: The Fortune 500.  The importance of this business designation belies a defining, monetary picture of our nation’s economy: http://www.fortune.com

The number-crunching research is conducted by a team, with oversight by the Senior List Editor, Mike Cacace, who’s also an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York. They work on the regal list, year-round. The Fortune 500 has been compiled, annually, for 58 years.

The notable publication cites in-depth, case studies and comparative benchmarks for BIG business in which many people are either invested monetarily, as employees, as managers, as innovators, as vendors, or as distributors to the wholesale, retail and global consumers – me and you. According to Andy Serwer, Fortune’s managing editor, California reigns with the MOST Fortune 500, company headquarters (53), despite the seemingly insurmountable, bureaucracy.

In 2011, the Fortune 500 companies exceeded $825 billion in profits described as ‘a heroic, but fleeting moment; not a durable, new age.’  Still, the Fortune 500 employs 25.8 million people worldwide; 17 million in the U.S., with those companies keeping wages even with inflation. The results are greater labor productivity. There are no homebuilders or education companies on the list, but take heart: 500, profitable companies is only the tippy-top of the commerce iceberg.

The economic rope(s), warmly tethering productive, small businesses together with larger local and global opportunities (in my bourgeois opinion) is technology. The accounting details are better left to the pundits and corporate execs, which brings me to the point (finally).

The top three, largest, U.S. corporations (2011) were: Exxon Mobil (Irving, Texas); Wal-Mart Stores (Bentonville, Ark.); Chevron (San Ramon, Ca.).

I believe May 7, 2013 unveils the 2012, Fortune 500 companies. 

Wal-Mart!  Right off the bat, I can tell you where eight stores are located between Corona, Moreno Valley, Murrieta, Temecula and Hemet–out of the 10,700 stores around the world. I’m one of the 200-million shoppers who visit the discount chain, on occasion. According the company's website, $466 billion in revenue has been generated, thus far, in 2013. The company employs 2.2 million associates, worldwide: http://corporate.walmart.com/our-story/

Not only do I think of low prices, Wal-Mart was (is) the profitability frontrunner in my graduate, business school, case studies, highlighting point-of-sale inventory management and horizontal, managerial structure.

In Murrieta’s micro-economy, Wal-Mart contributes sales tax revenue to the city (see attached PDF), as well as employment opportunities. Thus, the onus of Mayor Gibbs’ BUSINESS-RELATED journey to China is proffering businesses over there, appealing, business development opportunities on Murrieta soil, cultivating economic growth in this burgeoning city. In a global economy, foreign businesses CAN choose to develop and to grow most anywhere in the world; Murrieta is as good a place as any, wouldn't you say? Businesses create jobs, significant revenue, municipal stability and supportive infrastructure to help maintain the foundation of the company, hopefully, for many dynamic seasons.

That's good?  No! That's bad! Who’s to say? Assuredly, I can cite any number of gurus on the spectrum of naysayers, of logisticians, of politicians, of financial wizards, of neighbors and of friends.  I chose to refer (defer) to Adam Smith, who wrote, The Wealth of Nations (1776).  For a summary: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/09/adam-smith-wealth-of-nations.asp

Just in case you have an inquiring, Bureau of Labor Statistics mind, local and national data is collected and stored in numerical fashion, like the unemployment rate (11.5%) in the greater, Riverside area: http://data.bls.gov/pdq/SurveyOutputServlet

Admittedly, capitalism-- the free, open, competitive market-- is ALL I KNOW, but for my one (and only) trip to the Bahamas. ALL grocery stores marked the SAME, exorbitant price for food; no competition. Though a wonderfully scenic, tourist attraction, the country is a constitutional parliamentary democracy and a commonwealth, peaceful realm, under the reigning, Queen Elizabeth, II.

We are blessed with bargains in these United States. Thus, I’m the queen of bargain-hunting, which I can boast about as a citizen of this great, imperfect, entrepreneurial, secure nation and equally fabulous, California city. 

Let’s see, now…who's got what on sale?