Trump tells Walmart to “eat tariffs” instead of raising prices
President Donald Trump said Saturday that Walmart should “eat tariffs” rather than condemn the obligations imposed by his managers on imports due to increased retailers’ prices.
Reuters
We are hoping to add Ross stores to retailers and raise prices due to customs duties.
Ross Stores, who runs Ross Dress, operates at DD discounts at Less Less, and could be forced to raise prices for some products, executives said during a first-quarter revenue call on May 22.
The retailer reported a 13-week flat sales ending May 3rd, compared to the same period a year ago. Net profit of $479 million fell nearly 2% from a year ago, but met the expectations of analysts voted by S&P Global Market Intelligence.
CEO Jim Conroy said in a comment on the revenue release that sales are looming inflation, tariffs and inflation impacts over the coming weeks. “The strengthening of macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty continues, with the most notable inflation and evolving trade policies,” he said.
Ross Store: “I don’t want to be the first person to raise prices.”
Trade policies continue to shift. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump reached a US-China contract to lower the 90-day trade tariff rate. Tariffs on Chinese imports have been reduced from 145% to 30% on most goods, while China has reduced tariffs on US goods from 125% to 10%.
Trump has called on Walmart to “eat tariffs,” but Ross stores are one of the retailers that include preparing customers at higher prices on some products, including Walmart, Amazon and Best Buy. Half of the items sold in stores come from China, Conroy said. “If tariffs remain at such a high level, we expect to put pressure on profitability,” he said.
Like other retailers, Roth Stores are attempting multiple strategies to “mitigate costs” on tariffs, but expects consumers to start feeling the impact from late June to early July.
In addition to finding products made in other countries, Roth Store has worked with suppliers to “do this at this point, even in the second quarter,” and “earn better costs,” he said.
Finally, retailers can raise prices for their products, but “but we want to be very careful about price increases,” Hartshorn said. “We don’t want to be the first person to raise prices. We want to keep umbrellas and pricing umbrellas against mainstream retail.”
Over the next few months, this dilemma will be felt by consumers and retailers. Many of them rely on products from China, Conroy said. “At the end of the day, there will be a lot of products imported from China, especially for the next six months, for us and all other retailers and all other off-price companies,” he said.
Roth Store forecast flats to 3% sales in the current 13 weeks, ending August 2, compared to a 4% increase a year ago.
Contributions: Kinsey Crowley, Margie Cullen, Kathryn Palmer
Mike Snyder is a reporter for the trending team at USA Today. You can follow him in the thread, send BlueSky, X with X and send him an email Bliss & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider &msnider@usatoday.com
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