Buyers are seen wearing masks while shopping at a Walmart store in Bradford, Pennsylvania, July 20, 2020.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Walmart’s second-quarter fiscal sales received a boost from this spring’s stimulus checks, but that fell off in July when shoppers spent that money.
Now, the retail giant is waiting to see if the government will put more cash in customers’ pockets and give the company another bounce – or if it will have to rely on other pandemic-related trends toward buoyancy, such as Americans cooking at home and repairing their gardens.
Walmart reported a strong second quarter on Tuesday, driven by a 97% jump in e-commerce sales in the U.S. Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said the company benefited from Americans buying groceries, looking for ways to grow stay during the pandemic and spend money on their homes. Some of those dollars came from government incentives.
However, the company did not provide a financial outlook for the rest of the year. In an interview with CNBC, Walmart Chief Financial Officer Brett Biggs pointed to stimulus from the government as a factor causing uncertainty during the pandemic.
“Stimulus was definitely impacting the consumer in the second quarter, and we’re looking at what’s happening in Washington, and how we are progressing with a new incentive package,” Biggs said. “I think for sure it would be useful for consumers.”
Congress announced last week without reaching a deal on the next round of pandemic spending that included a second round of $ 1,200 incentives for Americans.
In the second quarter, sales of the same store in the US grew by 9.3%. That fell in July when shoppers had passed their stimulus checks, but were still more than 4% – higher than many quarters before the pandemic began.
McMillon said he would like to see the government support small businesses and said that will determine whether customers also have money in their pockets.
“This economy and this country are so driven by small and medium-sized enterprises that we want to see something happen there that will help support these people,” he said.
– Bertha Coombs and Amanda Lasky of CNBC have contributed to this story.
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