One day after Target reported that its revenue declined for the first time in six years due to customers’ “negative reaction” to its Pride Month collection, Walmart’s quarterly sales and profitability on Thursday far exceeded forecasts. According to Walmart’s earnings report, online orders for pickup and delivery drove a stunning 24% growth in e-commerce for the 13 weeks that concluded on July 28.
A Rapid Surge
Sales in physical stores and online channels open for at least a year surged by 6.4%, well beyond the 4% Bloomberg experts had predicted, and net sales abroad rose by 11% to $27 billion. Additionally, foot traffic increased by 2.8% at all of the discount retailer’s 10,500+ outlets, which is based in Arkansas.
Walmart increased its annual profit prediction for the second consecutive quarter in response to the gains. Longtime Walmart CEO Doug McMillon stated in the release of the results, “We like our position for the latter half of the year. Although McMillon said that there were also positive results throughout general retail, particularly at Sam’s Club, where membership income jumped 7%, strong revenue was linked to rising food sales.
Walmart has been contacted by The Post for comment. Target, a competitor retailer, on the other hand, cut its profit target for the entire year following a miserable quarter in which sales, foot traffic, and inventory all decreased.
Losses were ascribed to customers’ “negative reaction” to the company’s Pride line, which featured items like “tuck-friendly” women’s swimwear and LGBTQ-friendly baby and kid accessories that particularly infuriated many customers. In an earnings call on Wednesday, Target’s CFO Michael Fiddelke discussed the terrible rainbow-clad assortment, saying: “Traffic and top line trends were affected by the reaction to our Pride assortment.”
Retail earnings: Walmart in ‘the midst of a continued appreciation cycle,’ analyst says
Worse than Anticipation
According to Target’s Q2 earnings report, which was announced on Wednesday, sales in physical stores and digital channels active for at least a year were down 5.4% from a year earlier, while digital sales fell 10.5%. On the phone, Fiddelke stated that the retailer was unable to calculate the effect the Pride line alone had on comparable sales.
Target’s revenue for the three months that ended on July 29 was $24.8 billion, which was worse than the firm had anticipated and was down 4.9% from the same period last year. The amount was slightly less than the $25.2 billion that experts had predicted, but the decline is not unexpected given that Target’s stock dropped by about $14 billion as the Pride Month scandal made news.
Target was accused of grooming children with its merchandise, which included a children’s book titled “Twas the Night Before Pride” and a few T-shirts bearing LGBTQ-friendly slogans, like “live laugh lesbian,” at the time. Walmart also sold Pride-related items as part of its “Pride & Joy” collection, but it slipped under the notice of conservative commentators.
