Walmart Inc.’s top executive predicted a “pretty good” holiday shopping season as US consumers hold up better than the nation’s largest retailer anticipated at the beginning of the year.
(Bloomberg) — Walmart Inc.’s top executive predicted a “pretty good” holiday shopping season as US consumers hold up better than the nation’s largest retailer anticipated at the beginning of the year.
“In the US, things are better than I would have expected them to be when we started the year,” Chief Executive Officer Doug McMillon said Tuesday at the Goldman Sachs Global Retailing Conference. “I think holiday’s going to be pretty good.”
The pressures buffeting US shoppers are likely to be “about the same” next year, McMillon said. While he was worried earlier this year about deteriorating consumer balance sheets and inflation in some grocery items, he said he’s been pleasantly surprised by job growth, wage gains and a slowdown in price increases.
“I don’t go into next year feeling too pessimistic,” he told Goldman analyst Kate McShane. “I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen 12 months from now, but it feels like because of employment, wages, some disinflation, that things could kind of hang in where they are.”
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