In an interview on Squawk on the Street that aired on CNBC on Wednesday, July 5th, Bill Simon, former CEO of Walmart predicted that food prices will remain moderately high through the second half of 2023. He opined that despite an evident decline in inflation, shelf prices for proteins and packaged foods would not fall at the same rate as general deflation.  This will have an effect on the purchase patterns of consumers.  Macroeconomic factors including the high rate of employment and wages will lead to persistent inflation despite successive raises by the Federal Reserve to achieve a target of two percent.

The obvious implications from these observations are that deep discounters, dollar stores and low-price retain chains will benefit as consumers remain price conscious.