[intopieces]

Sales and operating income are two different metrics. The headline is not false, it just doesn't say what you want it to say.

Paragraph 10:

"The results are promising. By early 2016, the proportion of stores hitting their targeted customer-service ratings had rebounded to 75 percent. Sales are rising again."

[kgwgk]

Maybe the person you reply to was confused by the original title in HN, which was "Walmart generated higher sales, profits by paying workers more, better training" (that's not the NYT's fault, tough).