Despite continuing inflation, there are some areas where high costs are decreasing, according to Walmart‘s CEO on Tuesday.
According to Doug McMillon, costs are decreasing across the board for toys, apparel, and sports gear.
“In toys, sporting goods, apparel, and categories like that, prices have come down more aggressively,” McMillon said in the interview. “We’re still inflated but we’re not inflated nearly as much as we are in (other) categories.”
According to McMillon, TV sales are gaining from situations where customers can make less deliberate selections while taking price into account.
All of the categories are ones where big-box merchants built up significant order backlogs when the pandemic began. Eventually, as demand slowed and supply chain glitches abated, they found themselves with an excess of inventory.
The current lessening of price pressures has been discussed by other corporations. Peter Nordstrom, president and chief brand officer of Nordstrom, stated last month that his business continues to see lower costs in garment categories like fitness and home where pandemic sales have surged.
During his company’s third-quarter results call, Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen stated that “inflation is slowing down in many categories” of its fresh food products.
Walmart’s McMillon cautioned that some supermarket costs are still increasing, particularly those for poultry and other dry products, in the same interview on Tuesday.
In October, inflation rose 7.7% nationwide. On Tuesday, December 13, the following inflation reading for November will be made public.
