“We do continue to see the higher-income customers coming to Walmart,” Furner told reporters during the retailer’s annual shareholders’ week in Bentonville, Arkansas, last week. “We’re meeting more of them, they’re buying more, they’re coming more frequently.”
Walmart’s lower-income shoppers have shown “more signs of stress” under the current economy, Furner pointed out. And they’re not the only ones being more strategic with their budgeting; more six-figure earners are turning to discount grocery chains as food costs are inflated by spiking oil prices, tariffs, and global trade uncertainty.
“That’s really the stress point, is the price of fuel,” the CEO continued. “Hopefully we see some relief on energy prices.”
Walmart has seized the moment, wielding its size and influence as America’s largest food retailer to absorb fuel cost increases and keep prices competitively lower, company executives said. However, that could change in the coming months if gas continues to stay at its current high.
America’s cost-of-living crisis is sending six-figure earners to discount grocery stores
