 Broadcasting Around the World from Washington, DC, I'm Bart Chilton and this is Martin Luther King Jr. today. January 15th, it's actually was his birthday and were he alive today nearly 50 years ago after his assassination in Memphis, in Memphis, Tennessee, he'll be 88 years old. We'll have more on the good Reverend later in the program and Ashley Banks will also take a look at minority gains over the last 15 years and coming up after some headlines we'll talk retail numbers with Melissa Harmo plus Alex Mahalovich will talk about the debt trap for Canadians and debt trap for US consumers and before we go we'll head over to the National Museum of African American History but first let's get to the business of financial headlines. Ford has announced to increase their investment in electric cars to a total of $11 billion through 2022. Ford had previously committed to spending $4.5 billion through 2020 and redirected $400 million in development from conventional models to electric and hybrids. Ford currently features just one electric vehicle to focus in its fleet but the new investment is aimed at developing models that can carry the corporation's more well-known and exciting names such as the Mustang. Ford hopes to be selling a lineup of 16 fully electric cars within five years including an electric sports car called the Mach 1 by 2020. More power to them. The iconic automakers announcement at the Detroit Auto Show is still just an effort to catch up with similar commitments from some of the competitors. Volkswagen for example is already committed to investing $40 billion in this area by 2022. GM plans to sell 40 electrified models by 2023 including 16 that are fully electric already. Dalmar AG which owns Mercedes-Benz plans all electric vehicles by 2022 and Volvo plans to phase out and gas only cars by 2019. Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods is already boosting their online grocery delivery sales. Market watchers at one-click retail say sales per Amazon Fresh increased by 35%. Up $135 million for the last four months of 2017. Sales of Whole Foods 365 everyday value brand items contribute $11 million to that total. While the increase was significant Amazon's total is still just a fraction established of the grocer's cut in this specialty market area. Kroger for example banked nearly $2 billion rather in sales for organic and quote natural foods. Albertson's competing brand registered $1 billion in that niche. Online sales still account for just 3% of the $800 billion total for grocery sales. Amazon Fresh is believed to have captured $350 million of that total. Now let's talk retail and to do that we have probably the best person around joining us. Melissa Armo the founder of StockSuite, such a cool name Melissa. Thank you for joining us. Let's start with Walmart that's been in the news so much. They've been talking about their wage increases and then tried to sneak in the other day down playing and they're closing those 16 Sam's Club stores. What's going on Melissa? Art is just trying to compete really in this retail sector which you know Target raised their minimum wage last year in 2017. So Walmart's a little bit behind the eight ball with that. They're doing they just announced it's going to be $11 an hour for new employees which is great. But yes like you said they did close or they're going to be closing this month a lot of Sam's stores in fact about 10,000 people are going to be laid off which is a lot. But I really think in the end Walmart was trying to make a good decision here. The retail landscape is completely changing and it's not going to stop. These are the Walmart's the targets the calls they've got to compete with Amazon just like you were talking about and they've got to cut corners where they can. And when you talk about stocks I know you look at this stuff all the time. How are they doing compared to some of the competitors competitors that you met? How's Walmart doing? Walmart's been doing great. Let me tell you something. It has been a bullish market but Walmart has surpassed all expectations in the last year. If you look at the stock one year ago this month January 2017 it was around $69 a share and Friday it closed over $100 a share which even in a bullish market that is a massive jump for the stock. It's over 40% it's almost 50%. So Melissa if their stock's up 40% why are they closing 60 stores? What sneaky strategy is that? Because here's the thing it's like I said the retail landscape is changing and Walmart seeing that it's not just about price at these types of discounted stores which really Sam's Club I mean I don't know if you've ever been to Sam's Club but Sam's Club is about discount and bulk. So they're just trying to compete it's not just price anymore with these discounted stores it's about speed of delivery when you can get what you need what you want. And so that's you know that's the thing you still got to drive to a Sam's Club to get whatever you need whereas Walmart and you know they've got to compete more online with Amazon and Target. Now what about some of those retail owners that don't have those great stock numbers? We've talked before about Sears and Pennies they're having a tough time are they going to be making it? They've been having a tough time for years in fact I was looking at those charts earlier today you know JCPenney and Sears had strong years 11 years ago 2007 they have not been able to recover they have had steep drop-offs the stocks are around $4 a share for JCPenney and around three something for Sears. If they can't recover with this with the new corporate tax cuts this year in 2018 because of Trump if they can't recover in this period I don't I don't know if they'll ever come back you know I mean now's their time it's either make it or break it now for some of these retailers that really are struggling and and and again going back to Walmart they're trying to make good decisions they're trying to get ahead of it their stocks performing and want to keep it up you know what I'm saying and these stocks that are not doing good they've got to get going here they've got to take advantage of this opportunity but it goes back to again the online stuff you know if you can buy something online at Amazon versus JCPenney and you got to go into the store you know the big difference there hey Melissa what about what about the millennials in retail I mean as they're starting families are they really going to help retail in any significant fashion is there something that maybe we can sort of cross our fingers for with retail well you know millennials love online you know they love watching movies and TV shows on the internet everybody's got their iPhones now that's where people do their shopping on apps you know that's one of the reasons that Amazon has done so well too so obviously those consumers they were buying things but as they a little bit older and start to make more money and have families and need other products and services they may be going to some of these other places to buy things another good retailer is overstock.com that's a good place that people can go to and that is an online retailer no brick and mortar stores and that stock has been flying as well so millennials will look to buy things from Amazon overstock.com places like that when they're having babies. Yeah you know I get that whole thing I just I just wondered about particularly when you said the overstock thing you know there are certain things that you know you really want to touch and feel right I mean a mattress for a baby's crib etc and you know it's really difficult to do those online we want to have you back and talk about any prognostication so I'll warn you now Melissa about what's going to happen in the future but we're out of time now Melissa Armell founder of the cool sounding stock swoosh thanks always for your time and expertise Thanks have a great day See ya and time now