Walmart cuts beef and soda prices. Trump takes credit
Walmart is slashing prices on beef and soda. Trump is taking credit
Walmart's statement made no mention of the Trump administration's involvement, and the company hasn't commented comment on the president's claims
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Walmart $WMT announced price rollbacks on beef, soda, produce, and other summer items this week, as President Donald Trump claimed the cuts came at his administration's request — a characterization Walmart's statement did not support.
Trump posted on Truth Social that Walmart would lower prices "at my Administration's request to celebrate our great Country's 250th birthday," singling out a roughly 15% drop in ground beef prices. Walmart's statement made no mention of the administration's involvement, and the hasn't commented comment on Trump's claims.
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The price cuts Walmart announced Monday span several categories. A one-pound roll of 73% lean ground beef will ring up at $5.94, down from $6.74 — roughly a 12% savings. Shoppers can also find 24-packs of Coca-Cola $KO for $9.97, reduced from $14.97, and comparable Pepsi packs marked down to $9.97 from $13.97. Corn on the cob will drop to just $0.25 per ear, and a 2.25-pound bag of red cherries dropped to $5.63 from $11.18. At Sam's Club, the promotion covers more than 250 products, among them chicken wings, beef hot dogs, and ground beef.
Julie Barber, executive vice president and chief merchant of Walmart U.S., said in a statement that the retailer had made "investments in price" across products customers are shopping for most during the summer season.
Seasonal price reductions of this kind are nothing new for Walmart, according to CNN. The deals on soda, for instance, mirror promotions the chain ran during the previous summer, and the lower prices had already been available at stores for roughly a week before Trump weighed in on social media. Markdowns on in-season produce such as corn and cherries follow a predictable pattern tied to the agricultural calendar.
Monday's post was not the first time Trump has sought to attach his name to Walmart savings. When the retailer promoted a lower-priced Thanksgiving basket last year, he pointed to it as evidence of falling grocery costs — but left out that the basket had shrunk in size and leaned more heavily on Walmart's own store-brand line.
The price cuts come as beef has become a focal point of food inflation. The cost of ground beef climbed 12% in May compared with the same month a year ago. Years of persistent drought have scorched grazing pastures and pushed up the price of feed, squeezing ranchers and leaving the national cattle herd at its smallest in roughly three-quarters of a century.
Overall inflation now stands at 4.2% on a 12-month basis, up from the 3% rate that prevailed when Trump entered the White House, Bureau of Labor Statistics data show. Separately, a CNN/SSRS survey found broad public skepticism about the administration's economic stewardship, with 77% of respondents saying Trump's policies had pushed up costs in their local communities.
Walmart has been expanding its use of digital shelf labels across all U.S. stores, technology that allows workers to update prices across multiple products simultaneously. Persistent price pressures have nudged more affluent households to rethink where they shop, and Walmart has captured a larger portion of that traffic over the past several quarters.
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Read Original at qz.com →