Wal-Mart U.S. leader expects 'serious' inflation

Wal-Mart U.S. leader expects 'serious' inflation

www.usatoday.com

U.S. consumers face "serious" inflation in the months ahead for clothing, food and other products, the head of Wal-Mart's U.S. operations warned Wednesday.

Still, inflation is "going to be serious," Wal-Mart U.S. CEO Bill Simon said during a meeting with USA TODAY's editorial board. "We're seeing cost increases starting to come through at a pretty rapid rate."

(visit the link for the full news article)

Rapidly increasing raw material costs were first passed on to the manufacturers. But now they are finally about to be passed on to the customer. Get ready.

Is anyone starting to see rapidly increasing prices recently? What items are increasing in price? Also, is anyone seeing packaging getting smaller? This is a sneaky way for manufacturers to increase prices without many customers knowing about it.

I work in fast food. KFC to be exact. The other day my boss was changing prices on the menu. This is about the 6th price increase I've seen in the past 4-5 years I've been working there. The price of food is going up, soda as well.

It's probably more related to gas prices but airlines have raised rates something like 6 times already just this year (3 months).

Also don't forget the mfg try to trick you by charging the same price for products while giving you less than before.

I worked for "The Evil Empire" for 10 years.....with their fat new lawsuit against them they have on their hands it wouldn't shock me if they were just looking for a quick way to pay all those unhappy women!

This coupled with rising gas prices will not be a good thing for our economy and the average Joe on an already tight budget. This is exactly what we didn't need. I wonder just how drastic the price increases will be? I have already noticed some fringe things creeping up in cost like ammunition again. Food has been going up for a little while now, so there is no shock there. At least not until I check out at the local grocery store.

reply to post by MedievalGhost


Yep i read that too, woohoo higher prices Always WallyWorld!
It is good that wallyworld was able to crush much of their competition before this inflation came about,....
Or is it because wallyworld crushed the competition that we are in this debacle?
Doesn't matter to me as i do not shop at the commy store.
My wife gets angry with me when i spend double on something to avoid the place.
I hate walmart like the HIV.

Great minds think alike... just started a thread on the same topic... slightly different angle. Nice to see someone else reads the little articles and is aware of what's going on.

Yup, I see price increases all along the retail sector as I am in the retail sector. Any thing with corn, wheat, steel, rubber, petrolium is impacted. What is worse...the farmers are just now planting and diesel is almost 4.00 a gallon....plus, fertilizers are way up at astronomical levels. I used to buy 12-12-12 fertilizers for 8.00 a 50lb bag just a few years ago...no it is 14.00 for 40lbs. These costs will hit the markets by summer...ie June/July as the harvests start to take place....maybe sooner based on ag futures.

Get it now while you can.

Originally posted by jjkenobi

Also don't forget the mfg try to trick you by charging the same price for products while giving you less than before.

They started that in the lst year or two.

32 ounce containers are now 26 ounce containers. 16 ounce containers are now 14 ounce containers.

It's a shame. If everything stayed local and produced in small quantities things would have cost a little more all these years but we wouldnt be worried about crippling inflation throwing costs way out of whack now.

So much mass produced waste in everything from food to clothing to gadgets. It couldnt possibly be sustainable forever.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere

Actually, I first noticed "content shrinkage" years ago. I used to love Breyers Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream. Then around 8-10 years ago they reduced the half gallon to 1.75 quarts for the same price. I immediately stopped buying and never returned. Since then it has slowly crept to other product lines. Wherever possible I stay with the honest manufacturers who kept the same size but raised prices.

Inflation is up a little in europe as well, they are considering interest rate hikes over there.

www.bloomberg.com...

You can't blame the manufacturers for adding in higher production costs and big retailers like Walmart have their own transportation costs.

Problem is that higher prices may just reduce demand for non essentials and that would just create more recession.

yep,it figures,prices go up and it's us "little people" who pay.Really doesn't suprise me.I don't get it,cost of living is going higher and higher,but not according to the federal gov. though,at least the S.S.A,according to them the cost of living hasn't increased in 2 years,there have been no raises for anyone on social security for 2 years and that is their stated reason.The government obviously thinks we ARE sheep,anyone can see prices steadily rising.Government of the people by the people for the people......yeah right,now it's government of us people by some other people for a few people........and I served this country,what next?

reply to post by gary714


Are you kidding me? People on government support want the already over burdened taxpayers to kick in even more money? Are you serious? It is just that entitlement mentality that makes me wish we had absolutely zero government subsidies for anybody. The economy is screwed, get used to it.

Originally posted by Bordon81


You can't blame the manufacturers for adding in higher production costs and big retailers like Walmart have their own transportation costs.

I don't. I blame them for playing little games to hide the increase. They must think we are really stupid.

Another reason for the inflation may be that the board members "performance" bonuses are likely to be negatively impacted by the country's largest class-action civil rights suit in history.... so they have to start padding the numbers now if they want to keep that villa in Montserrat.

And don't forget the standard business practice of adding overhead and administrative "costs" to every price hike....

Did you know that if Walmart was a country and looking at their business was taken as imports and exports instead of purchases and sales, Walmart would be the 7th richest country in the world! Impressive for private sector business huh ?

Well, this is just common sense. People should be educated enough to know this already, but sadly they aren't and want to keep printing money to pay for things they can't afford. Don't expect any fiscal liberal to understand this.

reply to post by 547000


Dont insult fiscal liberalism by suggesting we dont understand how money works! We understand the system just fine, thats how we know how broken it is, and why we need to go back to barter systems instead.

reply to post by MedievalGhost


At the end of last summer I had to find a white shirt. After fruitless searches elsewhere (small town), I ended up at WM. I hadn't bought any clothing item there in years and was shocked at what I found. Believe it or not, the (womens) clothes at WM had gotten even cheaper! Clothing fabrics had been so cheapened, the clothes looked threadbare! I kid you not, the clothes looked like what I used to throw out.

So what is WM saying now? Their prices stayed the same but quality/quantity lower, and now their customers will pay more for stuff already cheapened?

reply to post by TrueBrit


If you think fiscal liberalism is fine then you know nothing about economics. Most people see the word "liberal" and blindly support it in the name of progress.