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President Donald Trump was unleashed in Walmart (Wmt) On Saturday, the pressure from the retail giant not to increase prices after warning that its commercial war policies would force it to do so.
“Walmart should stop trying to blame prices as a reason for increasing prices throughout the chain”, ” Trump said On its social social media site. “Walmart won billions of dollars last year, much more than expected. Between Walmart and China, they should, as it is said,” eat prices “, and do not charge for appreciated customers. I will look, and your customers too !!!”
Trump's insistence that Walmart “eats prices” undermines his repeated affirmations that prices are paid by foreign countries. The prices are paid by companies which import goods from countries, then these companies generally transmit at least part of these additional costs to their customers.
Walmart leaders warned this week that Higher prices arrive this month If new tasks on Chinese goods take effect.
“We would reach price increases if these prices were promulgated,” Walmart's financial director John David Rainey Rainey said to CNBC THURSDAY. Consumers “will start to see higher prices,” he said.
The warning landed only a few weeks after Walmart fired his advice April 9, seven days after Deployment of the “Liberation Day” rate This has changed world trade.
“We will do our best to maintain our prices as low as possible,” Walmart Doug McMillon's CEO said this week on calling the company's profits. But he warned that the retailer could not “absorb all the pressure” of the levels.
Appearing Sunday on NBC (Cmcsa) Meet the press, the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested that Walmart had pointed out to him that this would absorb part of this pressure.
“I was on the phone with Doug McMillon, the CEO of Walmart yesterday and Walmart will actually eat some of the prices,” said Bessent.
Walmart has acted as a deflationary force In the American economy for decades, the use of its domination on a scale and the massive supply chain – in particular with low -cost Chinese manufacturing – to lower prices through retail. By demanding the prices of suppliers and by making the savings to consumers, he helped to remove inflation in the categories at all levels, from socks to shampoo.
Now that the era can be over. “The magnitude and speed at which these prices arrive are somewhat unprecedented in history,” said Rainey on Thursday.
In the same way, its prices once set the tone for the wider retail sector, putting pressure on competitors to follow up on, the transition from Walmart upwards prices allows other retailers and major brands to follow the step.
Speaking at the Wall Street Journal (Nws), Harvard Jason Furman's economist Called it a turning point: “It's not Walmart while enjoying it. It's Walmart who has no choice.”
“It tells me that they are more afraid of their own customers and reactions than Donald Trump and his reaction,” added Furman.
—Catherine Baab contributed to this article.
