Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s chief executive said consumers have changed their behavior to cut costs amid concerns about job security during the recession.

Customers are buying more “self-treatment” drugs rather than filling prescriptions from the world’s largest retailer and are increasing purchases of frozen foods and food storage to cook more at home, H. Lee Scott Jr. said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program today.

“We’re seeing, though, that our customers have a great deal of faith that government will take the right action and be successful in addressing the current situation,” Scott said. “But the No. 1 issue today is their concern about their job.”

Americans, hurt by mounting job losses, a lack of credit and falling home and stock values, are losing confidence and cutting spending on everything from cars and furniture to food and vacations. Slumping sales are prompting even more job cuts, signaling the economic slump will persist deep into 2009.

Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart is one of the few U.S. retailers that reported higher comparable-store sales last month as consumers sought discounted groceries and basic necessities.

Scott attributed Wal-Mart’s growth to the company’s focus on the “everyday needs of middle-class America.”

Another business leader who joined Scott on “Meet the Press,” Google Inc.’s chief executive, Eric Schmidt, said the U.S. needs to start seeing results from the more than $2 trillion of loans the government is guaranteeing to financial institutions.

Need for Credit

“It’s time for that money to start working,” Schmidt said. “We know that when American consumers have credit, have cash, they will spend it. That will then begin the recovery cycle, and it will be quick.”

Scott said some businesses shopping at the retailer’s warehouse-style stores are coping with tight finances.

“In our Sam’s Clubs, we’re seeing the small business, particularly the restaurant owner, who’s visiting the club multiple times a week as yesterday’s cash flow allows them to purchase food for tonight’s business,” he said.

Former Hewlett-Packard Co. chief executive Carly Fiorina, a campaign adviser to Republican presidential candidate John McCain, said banks should be “required to loan money,” particularly since the government already committed hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out financial institutions.

“Credit has to be loosened or small businesses and consumers are not going to be able to buy or hire,” Fiorina said on the same program.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nadine Elsibai in Washington at nelsibai@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 14, 2008 15:54 EST