President Joe Biden is meeting on Monday (Nov. 29) with the CEOs of Walmart, CVS and other large retailers in the latest move to overcome ongoing supply chain snafus and inflation ahead of the holiday gift-giving season, according to a Bloomberg report.
The meeting is scheduled to include leaders from the grocery, electronics and pharmacy sectors, who will talk to the president about ensuring that shelves are stocked for the busiest shopping time of the year, a White House official told Bloomberg.
The CEOs for Best Buy, Food Lion, Samsung North America, Qurate Retail Group, Todos Supermarket, Etsy, Mattel and Kroger are planning to attend the White House strategy session with Biden in person, while Walmart CEO Doug McMillon and CVS CEO Karen Lynch and others will be remote attendees.
Biden will offer his thoughts on eliminating supply chain bottlenecks and lowering the cost of goods after the meeting wraps up, according to a White House statement.
The U.S. consumer price index, which is a reflection of the country’s inflation level, increased by 6.2% from October 2020 to October 2021, the biggest year-over-year jump since 1990.
Related news: Inventory Stockouts Cost Retailers up to $4.6B on Black Friday
About 22 million more consumers shopped on Black Friday this year than in 2020, with 45% of them spending more in 2021 than one year ago. A PYMNTS study shows that 13% more holiday shoppers made purchases online than in stores this Black Friday, and 16% of this year’s shoppers made at least some of their purchases online.
Inventory stockouts related to supply chain snags cost retailers up to $4.6 billion in lost Black Friday sales this year, with 38% of shoppers — 55 million people — unable to buy at least one of the items on their list because retailers did not have it.
About one in three shoppers (32%) say that three or more of the items they wanted to buy were unavailable at their preferred retailers. Shoppers couldn’t find an average of 2.2 items at the first store they visited because the items were out of stock.
PYMNTS research shows that consumers intended to spend an average of $253 on out-of-stock items, meaning retailers lost up to $30 billion.
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