ABC’s Good Morning America had an exclusive interview on Tuesday’s show with Walmart U.S. CEO John Furner about the upcoming Thanksgiving season and the overall state of the economy, but with co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos at the helm, it was framed as a hitjob on the Trump economy.
Unfortunately for Stephanopoulos, Furner wasn’t having any of it and pointing out the company’s been lowering prices and consumers are “very resilient.” Worse yet, the segment prior to this focused on....falling gas prices.
Stephanopoulos started with Thanksgivings costs: “Let’s talk about Thanksgiving first. Food prices are up, especially turkey. What you doing to help customers keep costs down?”
Hilariously, Furner immediately rebutted him by saying Walmart’s turkey prices would be the lowest since 2019 and its Thanksgiving meal basket would be 25 percent cheaper (or $14 lower) than last year’s edition, meaning it’d cost “just under $4 per person when serving ten people”
With the chyron flipping to “Walmart U.S. CEO on Keeping Costs Down,” Stephanopoulos second of three failed attempts focused on Trump’s tariffs, which he said have “contribut[ed] to higher costs across the board.” Thus, he wondered, “how much is going to be passed onto consumers as they turn to holiday items?”
Furner didn’t budge, first noting “about two-thirds of what we sell is either made, grown, or assembled in the United States and so, our merchants have done a really nice job of mixing things out.”
He also mentioned the decades-old Walmart Rollbacks as a way of sharing “as we stand here today...we have about 7,000 items on rollback, so — which is up about 1,000 from where we began the beginning of the year.”
Stephanopoulos made one last pass: “You know, a lot of American families are tightening their belts right now, borrowing more to pay bills, falling behind on credit card payments. Are you seeing any change in your customer’s behavior and what can you to alleviate that?”
Furner made it 0-for-3 for Stephanopoulos. This time, he hailed Americans as “very savvy” consumers who are “thinking about value, they love quality, and they’ve been very resilient.”
“So, we are doing what we can to ensure we are being as efficient as possible, so that we can deliver low prices. And the big change from — from just — even the year before...I’ll just reiterate...the price of the basket being down 25 percent...And then having over 7,000 items that we have taken the price down on key items, things like 50-inch Vizio television that is selling for $214. Those are great values that will really come in handy as people get ready to celebrate the holiday season,” he added.
To see the relevant ABC transcript from October 21, click here.
