found solace in the American consumer. On the surface, Walmart’s fourth-quarter results look like exhibit A for the optimists.
The company’s comparable sales in America grew by a faster-than-expected 8.3%, compared with a year earlier. Look closer, though, and the earnings are full of warning signs.
A big reason for Walmart’s market-share gains in groceries was cash-strapped consumers, including high-income families, trading down from fancier supermarkets.
Its higher-margin discretionary offering, which includes toys, clothes and homeware, did less well. That was despite heavy discounting of wares in order to clear inventories overstocked as a result of post-pandemic miscalculation about shoppers’ appetite for things like garden furniture.