Wal-Mart Stores posted first-quarter numbers that missed Wall Street's estimates, making it the latest retailer to blame weak sales on a colder-than-usual winter—but CNBC's Jim Cramer on Thursday wondered if something else is amiss.
"Has Wal-Mart lost its way? That's obviously not revelatory," Cramer said on "Squawk on the Street."
"I think a lot of people think that Wal-Mart is food stamps. Wal-Mart is unemployment extension benefits. That it's a play on U.S. government stimulus," he said. "I just think that it's also a recognition that people shop elsewhere."
The world's largest retailer reported its smallest growth in quarterly sales in nearly five years, as a severe winter kept shoppers from its stores. Shares fell on the news Thursday morning.
—By CNBC's Drew Sandholm with Reuters.