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While inflation in July fell below 3% for the first time since 2021, prices remain a hot-button issue for consumers—and politicians and major corporations alike are outlining their proposals to help bring them down.
Both Vice President Kamala Harris and Walmart CEO Doug McMillon last week announced plans to be proactive about lowering food prices. On Friday, the Democratic presidential candidate unveiled a series of economic proposals, including one that would instruct the Federal Trade Commission to penalize food producers and grocers for price gouging.
“We all know that prices went up during the pandemic when the supply chains shut down and failed, but our supply chains have now improved and prices are still too high,” Harris said during a campaign event in Raleigh, North Carolina.
The announcement got a reaction from Donald Trump, who in a Truth Social post last week said Harris planned to “implement SOVIET Style Price Controls.” While penalizing “price gouging,” a somewhat ambiguous term, is not the same as full price controls, many economists are divided about their effectiveness in lowering prices.
Rolling it back: Whatever becomes of the proposal, the country’s biggest retailer, Walmart, is moving ahead with more price cuts regardless. McMillon told shareholders last Thursday that the retail giant rolled back prices on 7,200 items across categories in Q2.
He also said food prices were down 30 basis points from the previous quarter, while noting that inflation in processed food consumables has been “more stubborn.”
“We are wired to help bring prices down and we’ll continue working on to get more rollbacks to help customers and help members save money,” he said.
But when it comes to its suppliers, some are struggling to keep up with Walmart’s pricing strategy. “There are some that are still talking about cost increases and we’re fighting back on that aggressively, because we think prices need to come down,” McMillon said.
He continued that this could lead to a leveling off in deflation: “I don’t forecast that we’re going to see a lot of deflation in our numbers looking ahead.”