Walmart\u2019s CFO John David Rainey said the retailer would likely have to raise prices on some items if President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s proposed tariffs take effect.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe never want to raise prices,\u201d he said in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday. \u201cOur model is everyday low prices. But there probably will be cases where prices will go up for consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rainey added that it\u2019s too soon to say which products could cost more due to the tariffs.<\/p>\n
Walmart\u2019s CFO weighed in on the potential policy change\u00a0<\/strong>as the company\u00a0beat Wall Street\u2019s earnings and sales expectations\u00a0and hiked its full-year forecast.<\/p>\n Walmart\u2019s comments are\u00a0the latest warning\u00a0from U.S. retail leaders about the potential blowback from from the duties. During Trump\u2019s presidential campaign, he said he would impose a 10% to 20% tariff on all imports, including levies as high as 60% to 100% for goods from China.<\/p>\n In a statement earlier this month, National Retail Federation CEO Matthew Shay described across-the-board tariffs as \u201ca tax on American families.\u201d He said it \u201cwill drive inflation and price increases and will result in job losses.\u201d<\/p>\n The prospect of increased prices comes as inflation has moderated in the U.S., after years of stretching consumers\u2019 wallets.<\/p>\n Other retailers and brands have also spoken out about the potential drawbacks of the tariffs. E.l.f. Beauty CEO Tarang Amin\u00a0told CNBC in an interview earlier this month that\u00a0the company could be forced to raise prices if the higher duties take effect.\u00a0Footwear maker\u00a0Steve Madden\u00a0said it will\u00a0<\/strong>reduce the goods it imports\u00a0from China by as much as 45% over the next year to try to avoid the financial impact.<\/p>\n The majority of goods Walmart sells\u00a0<\/strong>are not at risk of tariffs. Rainey said about two-thirds of the items that Walmart sells are made, grown or assembled in the U.S.<\/p>\n Like other companies, Walmart has tried to import from different parts of the world rather than rely heavily on China or any one country, he said. Rainey added that levies placed during Trump\u2019s first administration already caused the company to adjust.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been living under a tariff environment for seven years, so we\u2019re pretty familiar with that,\u201d he said. \u201cTariffs, though, are inflationary for customers, so we want to work with suppliers and with our own private brand assortment to try to bring down prices.\u201d<\/p>\n Like Walmart, Lowe\u2019s said it\u2019s also made moves to diversify its supply chain. The home improvement retailer addressed the potential levies as it\u00a0reported earnings\u00a0on Tuesday.<\/p>\n CFO Brandon Sink said about 40% of the company\u2019s cost of goods sold comes\u00a0<\/strong>from outside of the U.S., including direct imports and merchandise from national brands. He said tariffs \u201ccertainly would add product costs,\u201d but added \u201ctiming and details remain uncertain at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe we\u2019re well prepared to respond when and if it does happen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u2014 CNBC\u2019s Gabrielle Fonrouge contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Walmart\u2019s CFO John David Rainey said the retailer would likely have to raise prices on some items if President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s proposed tariffs take effect. \u201cWe never want to raise prices,\u201d he said in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday. \u201cOur model is everyday low prices. But there probably will be cases where prices will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12430,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}