Is Walmart lowering grocery prices in 2024?

The United States, and much of the globe, experienced a bout of inflation which hit consumers pocketbooks. One place where the rising costs were felt most acutely was at the supermarket when grocery shopping.

This caused a change in some Americans’ store preference with many flocking to Walmart as prices rose to take advantage of cheaper groceries and essentials compared to their competitors. But even the Arkansas-based big-box retailer had to raise prices.

Good news though is that food inflation has come down significantly and the US Department of Agriculture is forecasting that inflation on at-home food products will continue to slow in 2024. Furthermore, Walmart is rolling some of its price increases back.

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Is Walmart lowering grocery prices in 2024?

On an earnings call last month, president and CEO of Walmart US, John Furner, said that the number of products getting rollbacks are up roughly 50 percent compared to last year. “As far as categories, it’s pretty evenly spread across the box,” he told investors.

He mentioned two “really key items that we know that our customers have responded to well.” One is the rotisserie chicken, which has been marked down by a dollar. The other is French bread that is now back to its long-time, pre-inflation price of one dollar.

Douglas McMillon, president and CEO of Walmart Inc, shared that general merchandise prices at their stores are lower than a year ago, and in some case even two years ago. As for food, some are lower but others are more expensive than last year. He gave the examples of eggs, apples and deli snacks in the former category and asparagus and blackberries in the latter.

While prices are still up in the mid-single-digits on dry grocery goods and consumables this year, that is less than the high-teens of two-years ago. These kinds of products include paper goods and cleaning supplies.