Walmart's tariff price hikes are likely weeks away

Walmart said Trump’s import taxes remain too high to avoid passing along to shoppers, who could start paying more for some items as soon as late May.

Walmart said in February that it wasn’t “immune” from the costs of President Donald Trump’s tariffs. Now it’s preparing shoppers to pay more, potentially within weeks.

The retail giant is likely to start rolling out tariff-related price hikes “towards the tail end of this month, and I certainly expect more in June,” Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey told CNBC on Thursday, as the company reported earnings that exceeded Wall Street’s expectations. Sales rose by 4.5% at U.S. stores, and the company’s e-commerce business notched its first profitable quarter.

Walmart is the nation’s largest private-sector employer, with a 1.6 million-strong U.S. workforce and 4,700 locations, which it says are within 10 miles of 90% of the population. The company pulled in $165.6 billion in revenue in the first quarter.

It’s a challenging environment to operate in retail right now.

Walmart Chief Financial officer John David Rainey