{"id":685761,"date":"2026-05-22T06:01:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T06:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/685761\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T06:01:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T06:01:31","slug":"walmart-says-lower-income-shoppers-are-navigating-financial-stress-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/685761\/","title":{"rendered":"Walmart says lower-income shoppers are \u2018navigating financial stress\u2019 – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

Walmart<\/a> says lower-income shoppers appear to be increasingly \u201cnavigating financial stress.\u201d<\/p>\n

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This comes as the so-called \u201cK\u201d shaped economy becomes more prominent, which happens when higher incomes see their purchasing power sharply rise as lower incomes lose purchasing power at the same rate \u2014 just like the letter \u201cK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walmart saw its comparable sales, excluding fuel, rise 4.1 per cent last quarter and e-commerce sales surge 26 per cent.<\/p>\n

Walmart\u2019s executive team spoke in a conference call with shareholders and analysts on Thursday after reporting quarterly earnings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see with our customers that the high-income customer is spending with confidence into many categories, while the lower-income consumer is more budget conscious and perhaps navigating financial distress,\u201d said executive vice-president and chief financial officer John David Rainey.<\/p>\n

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Consumers focusing on essentials like food amid the heightened cost of living has been a pattern for several years as spiking inflation drives prices higher, and leaves less wiggle room in household budgets for non-essentials.<\/p>\n

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Walmart says groceries in particular have been driving its growth, and that includes its Sam\u2019s Club brand of stores, which it says typically appeals more to middle and higher-income households because of the extra membership fees.<\/p>\n

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Walmart says its Sam\u2019s Club membership revenue grew more than 17 per cent globally, and 5.6 per cent in the U.S. alone.<\/p>\n

Walmart\u2019s CEO, John Furner, said the company is prioritizing offering value across Walmart grocery, as well as its Sam\u2019s Club stores, to meet the demand of these cost-conscious consumers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an industry, particularly in food, where everyone is looking for value and has been for a really long time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the team has done, in particular at both Sam\u2019s Club and Walmart U.S. in the last quarter, is they focused on where are the places that we want to provide the very best value we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tChampagne says cost of food, rent and gas remains top concern for Canadians\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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Canadian Tire pointed to similar consumer habits in its recent earnings reports this year, including that sales growth from members of its loyalty program is outpacing sales from non-loyalty members.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe see a Canadian customer that is resilient but discerning. In the face of macroeconomic confusion, they have their chin up and their eyes wide open,\u201d said Greg Hicks, president, CEO and director at Canadian Tire, in a conference call with shareholders and analysts on May 14.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven as budgets get strained, customers are still shopping, but they are more selective and more value-driven.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI would just reiterate that in affluent households, our registered members, agnostic to debt burden, are also spending and engaging with us more \u2026 we\u2019re providing value at both ends of the spectrum for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Higher gas prices have also added to ongoing affordability<\/a> challenges amid the heightened cost of living<\/a>, as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz amid the Iran<\/a> war continues to choke off the world\u2019s oil supply. This means consumers have been feeling the pinch even more since the conflict began.<\/p>\n

Rainey answered a question from an analyst about changes in consumer habits as fuel prices rise<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe [Walmart] have a large fuel business, and we see that in the most recent period, the number of gallons that customers fill up with when they come to our fuel stations fell below 10 for the first time since 2022,\u201d he said and added, \u201cThat\u2019s an indication of stress.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Walmart says lower-income shoppers appear to be increasingly \u201cnavigating financial stress.\u201d This comes as the so-called \u201cK\u201d shaped…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[17755,45,49,48,1849,10262,46,44080,2845],"class_list":["post-685761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-affordability","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-consumer","tag-cost-of-living","tag-economy","tag-food-prices","tag-u-s-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}