May 22 (UPI) — Walmart has announced plans to lay off 1,500 corporate employees, part of what it calls a restructuring as it weighs plans to raise prices amid Trump administration tariffs.
“We are reshaping some teams in our Global Tech and Walmart U.S. organizations where we have identified opportunities to remove layers and complexity, speed up decision-making, and help associates innovate rapidly,” a memo to employees obtained by The Hill Wednesday said.
The memo said the retail giant is eliminating some jobs and creating new ones aimed at building on business priorities and growth strategy.
While Walmart said the corporate restructure is not directly related to the looming tariffs, it has said it is weighing the options of price increases and trying to absorb the tariffs when they are imposed, as it has done with past levies.
During a corporate earnings call last week, Walmart CEO Doug McMillion said the giant retailer would not be able to absorb all of the tariffs and said it would likely have to pass some costs on to consumers. Walmart said Wednesday it would be raising some prices.
Economists use Walmart as a gauge to consumer spending and have said that given the large percentage of goods the retailer imports, absorbing all of the tariffs would be difficult.
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump posted Walmart should “eat the tariffs” on social media.
“Walmart should stop trying to blame the tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain,” Trump wrote. ” Walmart made billions of dollars last year, far more than expected.”
Walmart CFO John David Rainey countered Thursday that the company is facing unprecedented financial pressure due to the tariffs.
“We have not seen prices increase at this magnitude, in the speed which they’re coming at us before, and so it makes for a challenging environment,” he told CNBC.
