The retailer also aims to grow sign-ups for Walmart+ after initially downplaying the membership program, Doug McMillon said at a Morgan Stanley event.
by Catherine Douglas Moran
Grocery Dive
With 2025 just a few weeks away, Walmart’s top executive expects food price inflation won’t budge from around its current level at the start of the new year — instead of ticking down, as consumers have hoped.
“I don’t know what the whole year is going to look like. I hope and I think it could be better as these commodities adjust — some of them,” Doug McMillon, the retailer’s president and CEO, said Tuesday during the 2024 Morgan Stanley Global Consumer and Retail Conference.
McMillon said he is “disappointed” at where food inflation currently sits, highlighting that eggs and dairy are the main drivers. Customers have been upset that food prices are currently “a lot higher” than before the pandemic, McMillon said, noting that Walmart has invested in rollbacks to lower prices. Food-at-home prices have jumped 25% compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to FMI – The Food Industry Association.