Walmart Hits a Rough Patch as Leadership Changes Meet Weak Demand

The world’s largest retailer is taking hits just as the holiday shopping season kicks into gear. Walmart’sWMT

long winning streak under CEO Doug McMillon is ending as he retires on Jan. 31, 2026, after 11 years at the helm. The shift comes just as the company faces cautious consumers, SNAP disruptions, and fewer promotions that are hitting both goodwill and profits.

• Shares climbed 21.3% over the past year, crushing rival Target’sTGT
  41.4% plunge and outpacing the S&P 500’s 14.3% gain.
• Shoppers are now split evenly across income levels, but McMillon warned that “we see more adjustments in middle- and lower-income households” as rising prices push them to cut back.

The bigger picture: McMillon’s successor, John Furner, is a 30-year company veteran who started as an hourly employee and now leads Walmart’s US business — which brought in $120.9B in Q2 and accounted for 68.2% of total sales. But with 87% of consumers worried about tariffs, Walmart’s promise to keep “prices as low as we can for as long as we can” may not be enough to steady it through a leadership transition and a tougher economic backdrop.