Walmart US Chief To NRF: ‘Loyalty in Retail is the Absence of Something Better’ - pymnts.com

Walmart U.S. president and CEO John Furner took over as the new chairman of the National Retail Federation Monday (Jan. 17), succeeding Qurate Retail, Inc. former president and CEO Mike George, who led the group through perhaps its most tumultuous two years in recent memory.

“I started in retail in the mid-1990s, because I was sure I was not going to work in retail,” said Furner during a panel discussion at the NRF Big Show in New York. “I wanted to be a musician, which wasn’t working out, so to support my income I took a part-time job in a Walmart store.

“I started to figure out that I could launch a really great career here, and I learned that successful retail people are people who really enjoy serving other people and solving problems,” he said.

Customers, said Furner, are changing — echoing a common theme at the 2022 Big Show—and it is essential that retailers understand those changes and cater to them.

“Loyalty in retail is the absence of something better,” he said. “When they find it, they’re gone.”

Consumers love eCommerce in all its various forms, said Furner, but they also love going to the store. In fact, Walmart has reported increased store traffic in recent quarters. Perhaps that’s in part due to Walmart store employees administering COVID-19 vaccines and testing customers for the virus.

“We have learned how to deal with COVID,” said Furner. “Our teams became defined as essential workers.”

Furner and his Walmart leadership team is working on solutions to overcome increased inflation, supply chain issues and other challenges to the success of the retail industry.

“We’re in a rapidly growing economy with a high demand level, which has led to out-of-stocks, supply chain problems and price increases,” he said. “Two major things we hear about from our consumers are their health and safety and rising inflation.

“We as an industry need to work together to remove cost from the supply chain, to make sure our customers can afford what they need,” said Furner.

Earlier this month, NRF Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz noted that Americans’ penchant for nonstop shopping during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is likely to trigger increased inflation.

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