Walmart says tariff costs are rising ‘each week’ : NPR

Walmart employee, Tim Taylor, adjusts the items for sale in the rear section at the school of a store in Dallas.

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LM OTERO / AP

Walmart says that it has been able to alleviate many of the price costs so far, but they are increasing “every week” and will continue to do so for the rest of the year.

The largest retailer in the world – like many others, including Home Depot and Target – must have increased prices on certain items, while maintaining the downward prices. Walmart says that his best products back to school were even cheaper this year than last year.

However, the Trump administration’s prices on practically all imports are looming to all retailers who see the cost of goods increase. Previously, when President Trump threatened prices up to 145% on Chinese imports, Walmart drew his anger by saying that it would cause higher prices.

On Thursday, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said that his business’s costs continued to climb: “We continued to see our costs increase each week, which, we will expect, will continue in the third and fourth quarters,” he said in a call for results.

Walmart continues to attract more high income buyers looking for offers, said McMillon. And where some items have increased at a price, middle and low income customers in particular have sometimes changed or jumped these purchases. But in general, he said, The prices did not cause “dramatic changes” in the purchasing behavior.

“The impact of prices has been progressive enough for the customer’s behavioral adjustments to have been somewhat attenuated,” said McMillon.

Overall, buyers continue to spend on stores and restaurants. Walmart sales in the United States increased by 4.6% in the last quarter. Home Depot said on Tuesday that its American sales in the three months that ended on August 3, increased by 1.4%, which was much earlier this year. The home improvement chain said that people have happened to smaller projects, while delaying major renovations – largely without concern about the direction of the economy.

“The first reason to postpone the big project,” said Home Depot CEO, Ted Decker, investors on a profit call, “is a general economic uncertainty that is higher than the prices of projects, the availability of work, all the different things we have talked about in the past. By a broad margin. Economic uncertainty is number one.”

Home Depot in a call with analysts during the previous quarter assured that this would avoid the increases in “large” prices because of the prices, but this week explained that certain prices had to increase a little, since the rate rates are “significantly higher” now than in the spring. The leaders of Rival Lowe’s said on Wednesday that the prices created a “dynamic environment” and “unexplored waters”.

Retailers and manufacturers have so far avoided the major price increases for two main reasons: prices have been deployed much more slowly than origin, and companies stored goods in advance. This week, TJX – The parent company of clothing stores at a reduced price Tjmaxx, Marshalls and Homegoods – said that he had bought more inventory than usual to be well supplied for months.