Walmart CEO Confirms Rollback of DEI Programs

DOKOUPIL: “Walmart is a great American company and the nation’s largest retailer. More than 1.6 million American employees alone and annual global revenue of nearly $650 billion. So I’m happy to say we’re joined now for exclusive interview with John Furner, the president and CEO of Walmart US. John, thank you very much for joining us. I want to get into holiday shopping. I want to get into grocery prices, but I gotta ask you off the top to talk about this report I’m reading in today’s Wall Street Journal about how Walmart is pulling back on diversity, equity and inclusion programs under pressure from conservative activists. So, a few of the changes here: phasing out the term DEI, winding down the center for racial equity, no longer giving priority treatment to suppliers based on race or gender diversity, and preventing sellers from listing some transgender-related or themed items on the website. So is that accurate, from what you’re hearing, and and why the changes?”
FURNER: “Well, first of all, good morning and thanks for having me, it’s great to be here. I’m in Houston, Texas, in our principal location, so it’s exciting to be in the store this time of year. First, let me say, like many companies all across the United States, we’ve been on a journey and we continue to be on a journey, and what we’re trying to do is to ensure that every customer, every associate feels welcome here to shop and to feel like they belong. And that term ‘belong,’ we’ve been talking about belonging now for almost two years, early 2023 we started talking about belonging, and we’re going to continue to make the best decisions we can that makes everyone, our customers, our associates, feel like this is an environment they could shop in and thrive in.”
KING: “Is diversity among your suppliers still important to you at Walmart, John?”
FURNER: “Well, starting with our our company back in 1962, we were a small business, a single store that operated out of Rogers, Arkansas, and so we’ll continue to do the things that we can do to ensure that small suppliers have a path to be successful, not only at Walmart, but in their business totally. And, you know, every year we really focus on made in the USA, about two thirds of what we sell is either made, grown or assembled right here in the United States. We have a program every summer called open call where we welcome in small suppliers and we welcome in people that have an idea, that are an entrepreneur, and they want to learn. So we’re going to continue to lean into ensuring that we provide the very best pathways for small businesses, our suppliers, to be successful here in the store. If I had more time, I could take you round the store and show you a few of those examples, but there are a lot of them and there’ll continue to be more.”
BURLESON: “All right, John, you mentioned that two thirds of what you have is made in the U.S. Let’s talk about that other third. President-Elect Trump announced last night that on his first day in office he will impose a 25% tariff on all products imported from Canada and Mexico. So how will that impact Walmart? What have y’all done to actually prepare for that? Have you guys guy been stockpiling in anticipation of these tariffs?”
FURNER: “Well, first, I’ll just say again, about two thirds of what we sell is made, grown or assembled here in the United States, and we’ve been very supportive, all the way back to our founder, of products that are made in the United States. Just a couple days ago, someone sent me a photo of Mr. Walt, actually my father, who worked at the company, with the president of Lodge, one of our brands here in the store in camping cookware. So we’ll be ready to be adjust — we’ll adjust to any environment. We’ve been in an environment with tariffs now for the last seven years, and we have a team of people that are really experienced in managing changes in the environment. Now, our role, our purpose is to try to keep prices low, to help people save money, and enable them to live better. Now, certainly there’ll be some occasions where you may see some impact on price, but we’ll do everything we can between our suppliers, our supply chain, and do everything we can to help ensure that we are as efficient as possible to keep prices as low as we can. And that’s exactly what we do each and every day, including right now in the holidays.”
KING: “Are you worried about the tariffs, though?”
FURNER: “Well, we want to do everything we can, as I mentioned, to keep prices as low as possible. Right now, we just — we just know what we’ve heard and what we’ve read about in the last 24 hours. And those changes, they they may happen, they may not, that’ll be up to the administration, but we’ll be evaluating carefully and we want to ensure that we have great values for our customers. You know, this week we have a Thanksgiving Basket where you can feed your family for under $7 and it’s a quality meal, this is 29 ingredients all proportioned appropriately. There will be great deals on Friday, like Lyon television for $220.65, so we’re going to focus on products and values. And, as I said before, we have a team that has managed these types of situations before.”
DOKOUPIL: “You know, John, I’m always interested in trends and what people are buying right now. You see what people are buying. You got a quarterly report just our a couple of days ago. What are the big items? What are the people flocking to Walmart to get these days?”
FURNER: “Yeah, it’s it’s a great question. First, I’m excited about the holiday. It’s late in the month. It took us all the way to the 28th of the month to get to Thanksgiving, so there’s a lot of anticipation for this. You can see behind me a store that’s really well-merchandise, not only in fresh food, which we’re getting to take a look at this morning, but throughout the box. In the last couple quarters we’ve seen improvements in our apparel business, our home business, our toy business has been strong. And so what that really means and what it sounds like to me is people are anticipating a great holiday season. This is the time of year where so many Americans have families get together to be thankful for all that they have and everything that’s great about their life, and then we’re going to us a shorter window compared to last year so it’s going to be a pretty intense time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. We have a week less, so for the shoppers out there it’s going to be a really busy time of year this year, just based on the way the calendar’s falling.”
BURLESON: “John, I gotta tell you, that’s a great shot behind you with all that fresh produce, and consumers are hoping that you guys produce some great prices for black Friday, all right, J?”
FURNER: “Okay, we’ll be ready. Can’t wait to see you there.”