Walmart

Saturday

Josie Cox

My Memorial Day pilgrimage to a Pennsylvania Walmart

Here in the US, Memorial Day – which falls on the last Monday in May – is, officially, an occasion for mourning and honoring military personnel who have given their lives in service to this great country. Unofficially, it is an occasion for charred hot dogs, 24-packs of Bud Light and nationalistic merchandising usually confined to airport gift shops. In our household, however, Memorial Day marks something different entirely. It’s the day we make our annual pilgrimage into the heart of consumer capitalism: a Walmart in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. By now you might know that I live in Manhattan. You might, therefore, be wondering why exactly we’ve adopted this strange ritual, necessarily involving a rental car and gridlocked traffic on the George Washington Bridge.

Tuesday

Richard M. Reinsch II

Is ‘eating the tariffs’ good for business?

When President Trump told Walmart to “EAT THE TARIFFS,” he implied that to not do so was a profit-mongering conspiracy against the American people. He noted Walmart’s extensive trade relationships with China and its large profit margin. But Walmart maintained that tariffs made price rises unavoidable. And when Amazon flirted with noting on some of its products the precise amount of cost increases attributable to tariffs, Trump called Jeff Bezos to complain and Amazon backed away from its plan. After observing Trump’s hostility to Walmart and Amazon, Home Depot took a different approach and asked: what trade war? Unlike numerous major American corporations, Home Depot has not rescinded its 2025 guidance for investors because of the uncertainty from tariffs.

Friday

Peter A. Coclanis

Walmart shouldn’t be selling dildos

'Honey, could you run over to Walmart and pick up some Honey Nut Cheerios, some OJ, and a couple anal plugs?’ Walmart has been selling sex toys for a while, mostly online but also in its stores. Now 'America’s store’ is upping the ante. The Behemoth from Bentonville has contracted a small boutique manufacturer, Massachusetts-based Clio, to supply a range of high-tech sex toys, produced with 3D printing technology, for sale in almost all Walmart stores. Walmart got into the sex toy business late, but has dived decisively down that rabbit hole since acquiring the ‘hip' e-commerce site, Jet.com, in 2016.

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