Home Depot has announced that it will not raise prices in response to President Donald Trump’s widespread tariffs.
This comes as the retailer has been working to get more of its supplies from outside China, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Meanwhile, Walmart announced last week that it would raise its prices because of the tariffs, prompting Trump to lash out.
Executive Vice President of Merchandising, Billy Bastek, told the paper that Home Depot considers pricing across its portfolio, hoping to hold most prices steady and possibly take market share from those raising their prices.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to take share, and it’s a great opportunity for our suppliers to take share as well,” he told The Journal.
Suppliers say that retailers, including Walmart and Home Depot, have been arguing for concessions on pricing or that suppliers move their production out of China. Some suppliers to Home Depot have done so.
“We anticipate that 12 months from now, no single country outside the United States will represent more than 10 percent of our purchases,” Chief Financial Officer Richard McPhail told the paper.
Home Depot’s comparable sales in the quarter dipped by 0.3 percent. However, in the U.S., they increased by 0.2 percent. February sales were low because of bad weather. Still, good employment levels and home appreciation have meant that its customer base of mostly homeowners has carried on spending on home improvement, McPhail noted.
Chief Executive Ted Decker added that he’s waiting for an improvement in consumer confidence. While Home Depot’s customers continue to spend on things like painting or yardwork, projects that would need financing appear to have been paused for now.
“While there are literally trillions of dollars of equity available to be tapped in the homes, I think there’s still enough macro uncertainty,” Decker told The Journal.
As a number of companies have scaled back or suspended their forecasts amid the tariff uncertainty, Walmart and Home Depot have kept their financial forecasts for the fiscal year unchanged.
