Walmart is reporting an increase in sales as shoppers have reportedly been buying more groceries due to rising fast food prices from inflation.
Speaking on CNBC Thursday, Walmart Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey said the megastore chain saw an uptick in sales this past quarter as more and more customers have traded out fast food for groceries.“It’s roughly 4.3 times more expensive to eat out than it is to eat at home,” he said. “And that’s benefiting our business.”
Some customers feel that grocery store items have grown cheaper while fast food has grown more expensive. Due to the uptick in sales, Walmart’s stock saw an “all-time high Thursday, after it beat Wall Street’s quarterly sales and revenue expectations, and said it expected its full-year results to be on the high end of, or better than, its previous forecast,” according to CNBC.
Walmart also saw a 3.8% rise in transactions in both its stores and online this past quarter. Meanwhile, restaurants like McDonald’s, Starbucks, and Yum Brands have seen a downward trend in sales.
FILE – In this March 4, 2015 file photo, an order of McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets is displayed for a photo in Olmsted Falls, Ohio. McDonald’s is testing Chicken McNuggets with no artificial preservatives as it works to revive its U.S. business. The world’s biggest hamburger chain says it began testing the new recipe in about 140 stores in Oregon and Washington in March 2016. (AP Photo/Mark Duncan)
“Foot traffic to limited-service chains, which includes fast-food and fast-casual restaurants, fell 3.5% in the first quarter, according to Revenue Management Solutions. Restaurant executives blamed bad weather in January and February — and a consumer slowdown, particularly among lower-income diners,” noted CNBC.
Conversely, Wingstop, Sweetgreen, and Chipotle reported strong sales.
“Inflation data from the U.S. Labor Department reflects the difference between the price that customers pay for food they cook at home or pack for lunch, compared with what they pay at a coffee shop or restaurant,” noted CNBC. “As of April, the price of food at home, a category that measures the total cost of food purchased at grocers or other food stores, was up 1.1% year over year.”
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