Inflation Stings Prices at Walmart, and Something’s Gotta Give
- Consumer goods prices rose 2.3% in first six months of 2019
- Retailer faced with choice: raise prices or absorb higher cost
Customers shop at a Walmart Inc. store in Secaucus, New Jersey.
Photographer: Timothy Fadek/BloombergWalmart Inc. prides itself on rock-bottom prices for everyday goods, but as soda, snack and toothpaste makers boost what they charge retailers in response to rising costs and looming tariffs, something’s got to give.
The question is where. Investors will get a sense of that give-and-take when Walmart reports results Thursday. Average prices for consumer goods rose 2.3% in the first six months of 2019, according to data tracker Nielsen, the fastest pace in several years. Walmart said it saw “modest” inflation in the first quarter, but it has heated up lately, and a Walmart shopping trip was 5.2% more expensive in June compared with a year earlier, according to Gordon Haskett Research Advisors. For thrifty Walmart shoppers, that matters.