CEO Doug McMillon stated that consumer inflation is at an all-time high of 40%. This means that most shoppers, rich and poor, will look for the lowest prices.
“During times of inflation like these, middle-income households, lower-income families and even wealthier families become more price-sensitive.” McMillon stated that this is to our advantage during Thursday’s earnings call.
“So, we’ve seen this before. We deal with inflation all over the globe every day. The U.S. is currently facing inflation in a different way than in recent years. However, we have dealt with inflation in South America and Mexico in the past.
Consumer prices surged 7.5% in January, the highest level since 1982. Producer prices rose 9.6%, the record high.
Walmart has been able to manage the soaring costs, which has helped it report solid earnings. The total revenue for the year reached $572.8 billion. This is an increase of 2.4%. The U.S. comp-store sales increased 6.4% during the same period.
The average ticket increased 2.4% while transactions rose by 3.1%. The average customer spending is not disclosed by the company.
Walmart is not only managing inflation internally but John Furner, the president and CEO at Walmart U.S. said that his team was able to “rollback” prices.
“We are also seeing the potential to increase some rollbacks in shops. We are very proud of our team. “We’re seeing almost the same amount of rollbacks now as we did at the end Q1 last year,” Furner stated, noting that prices for dry groceries and consumer electronics were two areas where rollbacks were occurring in some stores.
Walmart and Sam’s Club own 5,342 stores in the U.S.
Walmart shares are down 4.6% year to date as of Friday. This is less than the 8.8% decline in S&P 500.
