• The Walmart heirs' combined estimated net worth is nearly $380 billion.
• All three of Sam Walton's surviving children have now made it into the $100 billion club.
• In public, the Waltons live relatively modest lifestyles despite their wealth.

All three of Walmart founder Sam Walton's surviving children have made it into the $100 billion club as the retail giant's share price continues to soar.

The combined wealth of the Walmart heirs — which include founder Sam Walton's children, Rob, Jim, and Alice, as well as his grandson Lukas — is nearly $380 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Together, they're significantly ahead of the top individual names on the list, such as Jeff Bezos, Bernard Arnault, or Mark Zuckerberg, though Elon Musk has recently seen his fortune outstrip their collective net worth.

While some have worked in the family business — whether that's serving on the company board or working to manage the family's wealth — others chose to pursue areas of personal passion.

Sam Walton, the original man behind the company that now encompasses both Walmart and Sam's Club, set his family up for financial success when he divided the ownership before he died.

Most recently, the Walton children have expanded voting control to their own, giving eight of Sam's grandchildren a say in the family holdings.

Sam wasn't a man of flashy luxury, but you can see how his children are living a slightly more lavish life now. Here's a look at how the Walton family empire spends its money: 

Sam Walton opened the first Walmart store in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962.

As he grew his retail empire, Walton, an experienced pilot, would often fly in unannounced to check in on a particular store location.

He married Helen Robson on Valentine's Day in 1942.

Together, they had four children: Rob, John, Jim, and Alice.

By the time Sam died in 1992, he had set up the company ownership in a way that minimized the estate taxes anyone on the receiving end would have to pay.

Source: Fortune

He set up his ownership of Walmart's stock in a family partnership — each of his children held 20% of Walton Enterprises, while he and Helen each held 10%. Helen inherited Sam's 10% tax-free when he died.

Source: Fortune

Samuel Robson "Rob" Walton is the oldest Walton child. He is 80 years old.

He served as chairman of Walmart from 1992 until 2015 and remained on the board until this year.

He retired from Walmart's board at the end of his term in 2024.

Rob made a splash in 2022 by leading an ownership group to buy the Denver Broncos.

The group purchased the NFL team for a $4.65 billion in summer 2022 in a record-breaking sale at the time.

Rob has purchased a house in Paradise Valley, Arizona, near the base of Camelback Mountain.

In the past, protesters have rallied outside of his Arizona home to advocate for better wages and benefits for Walmart workers.

Besides real estate, Rob has a large collection of vintage cars.

In 2013, he ran his Daytona Coupe, which was worth $15 million at the time, off the tracks and wrecked it. The car was one of only five ever made.

Sam Walton's second-oldest child, John Walton, died in a plane crash in 2005.

He was 58 years old.

He was married to Christy Walton and had one son, Lukas.

John left about 17% of his wealth to his wife, and he gave the rest to charity and to his son.

Source: Business Insider

John served in Vietnam as a Green Beret. When he returned from the war he held a series of jobs — like the Walmart company pilot, a crop duster, and the owner a few yachting companies — before becoming a Walmart board member.

Source: Fortune

In 2013, Christy decided to sell their Jackson Hole mansion. She also sold the family's ranch for an undisclosed price in 2016 after listing it for $100 million in 2011.

Source: Curbed and Ranch Marketing Associates

The 8,606-square-foot home was put on the market for $12.5 million.

Source: Curbed

James "Jim" Walton is the youngest son of Walmart founder Sam Walton. He is 76 years old.

He is chairman of the board of the family's Arvest Bank Group. One of the state's largest banks today, Arvest Bank has assets totaling more than $26 billion.

Source: Bloomberg

He also served on the Walmart board, starting in 2005 to fill the vacancy after his brother John died. Jim Walton's son, Steuart, took over his father's seat on the board in 2016.

Now, he presides over Walton Enterprises — the private company that deals with the investments and finances of the Walton family only — from modest offices in Bentonville, Arkansas.

Source: Fortune

The youngest of founder Sam Walton's children, Alice Walton is worth $112 billion, according to Bloomberg. She has been divorced twice and has no children. She is 75 years old.

Alice has never taken an active role in running the family business.

Instead, she became a patron of the arts, which she fell in love with at a young age.

When she was 10, she bought her first work of art: a reproduction of Picasso's "Blue Nude" for about $2, she told The New Yorker.

Source: The New Yorker

She has an immense private art collection, with original works from Andy Warhol and Georgia O'Keeffe. Alice opened a museum in Bentonville called Crystal Bridges in 2011 to house her $500 million private art collection.

The collection includes a Georgia O'Keeffe painting that Alice spent $44.4 million on in 2014 — the biggest sale for a woman's piece of art in history.

Source: The Observer

Alice also breeds horses.

Her Millsap, Texas, property, Rocking W Ranch, sold to the Three Amigos Investment Group of Kermit, Texas, in September 2017 for an undisclosed amount.

Source: Star-Telegram

It had an initial asking price of $19.75 million, which was reduced to $16.5 million. The working ranch had over 250 acres of pasture and outbuildings for cattle and horses.

Source: WilliamsTrew

Her other, 4,416-acre Texas ranch was previously listed at a reduced price of $22 million.

The modest, three-bedroom, two-bathroom home overlooks the Brazos River.

Alice also bought a two-floor condo on New York's Park Ave. for $25 million in 2014.

Source: Business Insider

It has more than 52 large windows overlooking Central Park plus a media room, a winding staircase, and more than 6,000 total square feet of space.

Source: Business Insider

In January 2016, Alice donated 3.7 million of her Walmart shares — worth about $225 million at the time — to the family's nonprofit, the Walton Family Foundation.

Sam and Helen started the foundation as a way to teach their children how to give back and how to work together.

The charity awards millions of dollars in grants to causes that align with the foundation's values.

The foundation has three main areas of focus:

The foundation's focus on education was led by John. His brother Jim said John was really interested in being able to give parents choices when it came to their child's schooling.

Source: Walton Family Foundation

Rob spearheaded the foundation's venture into environmental protection. One of the first grants they gave helped develop a sustainable fisheries label.

Source: Walton Family Foundation

A commitment to the family's home of Arkansas is another large part of the foundation. The website says this area of focus is about "advancing our home region of Northwest Arkansas and the Arkansas-Mississippi Delta."

Source: Walton Family Foundation

Walmart Inc., which owns Walmart and Sam's Club, is the largest retailer in the US in terms of revenue.

Even though the Walton family is raking in billions as a result of the company's success, they remain relatively under-the-radar in terms of flashing their wealth — much like their patriarch, Sam, did in the early years.

In December, Walmart disclosed that Sam's children had granted voting rights to eight of their own children, bringing the total number of voices in the family fortune from three to eight, and keeping with Sam's vision for his legacy.

Source: SEC filings

• I visited Walmart in Wisconsin and New Jersey to compare stores in the Midwest and the East Coast.
• Milk was less expensive in Wisconsin, but a dozen eggs cost the same at both locations.
• New Jersey's Walmart had a food hall startup, Wonder, founded by a former Walmart executive.

As a Midwesterner who moved to New York City a decade ago, I still find myself surprised by regional differences in national brands.

As part of an ongoing series comparing nationwide retailers in the Midwest and on the East Coast, I visited Walmart locations in Wisconsin and New Jersey to compare their prices, offerings, and store amenities.

First, I visited a 200,000-square-foot Walmart store in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.

The following week, I visited a Walmart in Teterboro, New Jersey, around 8 miles from Manhattan. Unions and politicians have long blocked Walmart stores from opening in New York City due to concerns about its potential impact on local businesses.

The 150,000-square-foot Teterboro store is one of 12 flagship Walmart stores in the country, offering technologies and amenities unavailable in all locations.

Here are the most surprising differences I noticed.

At Walmart in Manitowoc, Wisconsin's state flag was displayed at the checkout counters.

Wisconsin's state flag features a coat of arms and a badger flanked by a sailor and a yeoman.

New Jersey's state flag was displayed at the Walmart I visited in Teterboro.

New Jersey's flag depicts its state seal in the official state colors George Washington chose during the Revolutionary War: buff and Jersey blue.

"In almost all stores, a US and state flag are displayed near the storefront as a show of support to the communities the company serves," a Walmart spokesperson told Business Insider.

The Walmart store in Wisconsin had an entire aisle of beer including many local brews.

Wisconsin is known for its beer, and New Glarus Brewing's Spotted Cow is one of the state's most beloved brews.

In New Jersey, Walmart didn't sell alcohol because of the state's liquor licensing laws.

The Teterboro Walmart had plenty of ginger beer, sparkling grape juice, and non-alcoholic cocktail mixes, but I was surprised it didn't sell any alcohol.

New Jersey's liquor laws dictate that only two locations of corporately owned supermarkets can sell beer, wine, and spirits in the state, NJ.com reported.

In the Midwest store, toiletries like CeraVe face wash were stocked on open shelves.

In Wisconsin, the only personal care products kept on locked shelves were sexual wellness items like condoms, emergency contraceptives, and pregnancy tests.

In the East Coast store I visited, the same items were kept behind lock and key.

I noticed the same phenomenon when I compared Target stores in the Midwest and New York City. On the East Coast, more items were kept in locked cases to prevent theft.

A Walmart spokesperson told Business Insider that "some products are subject to additional security," determined "on a store-by-store basis."

A gallon of store-brand skim milk cost $2.96 at Walmart in Wisconsin.

In February, the government benefits resource website HelpAdvisor analyzed findings from the 2023 US Census Household Pulse Survey and determined that Wisconsin had the lowest average grocery costs out of any state.

The same gallon of milk cost $3.29 in New Jersey, a price difference of 33 cents.

Milk at New Jersey's Walmart costs 11.2% more than it did in Wisconsin.

Grocery prices often vary by state due to differences in labor costs, food distribution costs, and the overall cost of living.

"We're committed to meeting our customers' shopping needs wherever they shop with us and understand in-store pricing can differ due to regional operating costs, extensive supplier networks, strict regulatory compliance, and competition," a Walmart spokesperson said.

In Wisconsin, a dozen large eggs were priced at $3.97 and came in Styrofoam cartons.

The grade-A eggs were also from Walmart's Great Value brand.

At Walmart in New Jersey, the eggs were also $3.97 but came in paper cartons.

Styrofoam food service products have been banned in New Jersey since 2022, although egg cartons were exempt from the ban until earlier this year.

I was surprised that eggs cost the same at both locations even though they were packaged differently.

In Wisconsin, an outdoor services counter offered assistance with hunting and fishing licenses.

The store also stocked pellet guns and air rifles for small game hunting.

I didn't see an outdoor services counter at the Walmart in New Jersey.

A Walmart spokesperson confirmed that outdoor sporting licenses are not offered at the Teterboro location, though they are available at other store locations in New Jersey.

The Teterboro store also didn't stock any guns other than toys and water guns.

The Wisconsin Walmart sold a variety of prepared foods in the grocery section.

The Walmart store in Manitowoc featured a bakery and deli. It also sold packaged salads and take-and-bake pizzas.

In New Jersey, the Teterboro Walmart featured a Wonder food hall, a startup founded by former Walmart executive Marc Lore.

Lore previously served as Walmart's president of e-commerce. His startup, Wonder, offers dine-in, delivery, and takeout meals from restaurants by celebrity and Michelin-star chefs.

Teterboro is the third Walmart store to open a Wonder location. The others are at Walmart stores in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, and Ledgewood, New Jersey.

Wonder has continued to grow, acquiring the meal-kit company Blue Apron for $103 million in 2023 and GrubHub for $650 million in November.

• Many major companies are requiring employees to return to the office full or part-time.
• Business Insider compiled a running list of the companies calling employees back.
• The list includes companies like Starbucks, Amazon, and BlackRock.

In September, Amazon mandated corporate workers return to the office five days a week beginning January 2.

In December, Business Insider first reported that AT&T is following suit and expecting employees to be in the office 40 hours a week starting in the new year.

The two business giants are just one of the many companies calling their employees back to the office following the pandemic as COVID-19 restrictions have eased.

The Washington Post, which is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, told employees this week they would be required to return to the office five days a week, according to a memo obtained by Business Insider.

Other major employers, including JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, have also abandoned the hybrid attendance policy they adopted during the pandemic and instead implemented full return-to-office mandates.

Several executives and leaders have said they believe productivity increases when workers are in the office together, while others hope to increase in-person collaboration. Even some CEOs who previously praised the flexibility of remote work have started backpedaling, pressuring workers to comply with RTO mandates with threats to track attendance or even fire employees who don't comply.

Here's a list, in alphabetical order, of major companies requiring employees to return to offices. Business Insider will update this list regularly.

Amazon

CEO Andy Jassy wrote in a September 16 memo that Amazon would be pulling the plug on remote work starting next year.

"We've decided that we're going to return to being in the office the way we were before the onset of COVID," Jassy said. "When we look back over the last five years, we continue to believe that the advantages of being together in the office are significant."

The CEO cited easier employee collaboration and connection and said in-person work would strengthen the company's culture, echoing his February 2023 memo, which mandated employees spend at least three days a week in the office.

Not everyone agrees. Some Amazon employees have taken to an internal Slack channel to criticize the new RTO policy, Business Insider's Ashley Stewart first reported, with one staffer writing that it is "significantly more strict and out of its mind" than pre-Covid operations.

"This is not 'going back' to how it was before," they wrote. "It's just going backwards."

The critical reaction is reminiscent of employees' response to last year's surprise return-to-office rule. Thousands of Amazon workers joined a Slack channel to share their thoughts, with some even organizing to file a petition against the change.

Apple

In August 2022, Apple's senior leaders told workers they had to return to the office at least three days a week after previously requiring two days a week. CEO Tim Cook said the decision was meant to restore "in-person collaboration." Some employees fought back and issued a petition shortly after the announcement, arguing that staffers can do "exceptional work" from home.

Despite the pushback, Apple's hybrid work program launched the following month and is still in place.

AT&T

AT&T confirmed to Business Insider that it's requiring all office employees to work on-site five days a week starting in January.

The change follows about a year of AT&T accommodating a hybrid schedule in its widely publicized office push.

"The majority of our employees and leaders never stopped working on location for the full work week — including during the pandemic," a spokesperson for the telecom giant told BI.

AT&T told BI it's updating its facilities amid the policy change.

"As we continue to evolve our model, we are enhancing our facilities and workspaces, adapting our benefits programs, and incorporating best practices to ensure our employees are best equipped to serve our customers," the spokesperson added.

BlackRock

Last year, BlackRock mandated employees return to the office four days a week. The investment firm, which is headquartered in New York City, intended to bring employees into its then newly leased office space — which spans 1 million square feet across 15 floors, according to Hudson Yards.

In a May 2023 memo sent by the company's COO, Rob Goldstein, and the head of human resources, Caroline Heller, the execs wrote: "Career development happens in teaching moments between team members, and it is accelerated during market-moving moments, when we step up and get into the mix. All of this requires us to be together in the office."

Additionally, the memo notified staffers that the firm is giving them the opportunity to work remotely for two weeks during a time period that is relevant in their country, in an effort to offer "seasonal flexibility."

Chipotle

The fast-food chain announced last summer that corporate workers work in the office four days a week, Bloomberg reported. Chipotle had previously required workers to show up three days a week, according to the report.

Citigroup

Citigroup asked its 600 US workers, who were previously eligible to work remotely, to return to the office full-time, Bloomberg reported. In a memo released by the investment firm in May, the majority of staff are reportedly still able to work a hybrid schedule, with up to two days a week outside the office.

HSBC Holding Plc and Barclays Plc also followed suit, mandating workers to come into the office five days a week, according to the report.

Vaccinated Citigroup employees across the US were asked to return to the office for at least two days a week in March 2022, an internal memo obtained by Reuters said.

Dell

Dell told its sales staff to return to the office five days a week starting on September 30. Previously, the company let US employees pick between working remotely or following a hybrid schedule with about three days a week in the office.

September's sales-team mandate came with just a few days' notice, sending employees with kids into a hurry to find childcare, Business Insider reported.

Disney

In a January 2023 memo obtained by Business Insider, CEO Bob Iger told workers that starting that March, any Disney staff member working "in a hybrid fashion" would need to return to Disney's offices four days a week.

In response, over 2,300 employees signed a petition asking Iger to reconsider the mandate.

"This policy will slow, or even reverse, our post-COVID recovery and growth by creating critical resource shortages and causing irreplaceable institutional knowledge loss," signees wrote, according to The Washington Post.

Goldman Sachs

In March 2022, CEO David Solomon told Fortune that the company was asking employees to return to the office five days a week. Seven months later, he told CNBC that about 65% of staffers were working in the office.

However, some staff have failed to follow the policy a year into its implementation, causing senior managers to become frustrated and Goldman Sachs to further crack down on employees to return to the office full-time.

Google

In March 2022, Google employees in the San Francisco Bay Area and "several other US locations" were told to return to the office for at least three days a week starting the following month.

Last year, however, the company tightened RTO expectations, telling staff in an email that office attendance would factor into their performance reviews.

Google's Chief People Officer Fiona Cicconi told workers in the memo that requests to work remotely full time will now be considered "by exception only."

Some employees expressed feeling "frustrated" with the new policy. One staffer previously told Business Insider, "We don't like being micromanaged like school kids."

IBM

IBM has made its feelings on in-person work strictly clear — telling managers to either come into offices or get out.

The company asked all its US managers to report to an office or client location at least three days a week, according to a January memo viewed by Bloomberg.

A source told the outlet that staff would have to live within 50 miles of an IBM office or client location. The memo reportedly told employees they had until August to complete their relocation arrangements, and those who were unable to comply with the new policy must "separate from IBM."

CEO Arvind Krishna previously told the news outlet that employees' careers could suffer if they work from home. He said that although he wasn't forcing his own staffers back to the office, he thought remote workers may struggle to get promotions.

JPMorgan

In April 2023, JPMorgan announced to employees in a memo that all managing directors must work in the office five days a week. The memo also reminded other workers of the current policy of working in-person a minimum of three days a week.

Despite some pushback from employees, CEO Jamie Dimon doubled down on the policy, saying disgruntled workers can choose to go elsewhere.

"I completely understand why someone doesn't want to commute an hour and a half every day, totally got it," he told The Economist. "Doesn't mean they have to have a job here either."

The company has also been collecting data on staff activity, including tracking attendance.

Meta

Meta updated its remote work policies in September 2023, requiring employees to head into the office three days a week.

It had also stopped offering remote work in new job listings. People familiar with the company previously told BI that hiring managers could no longer post new jobs that list the work location as "remote" or outside of an existing office.

The company doubled down on its RTO efforts in June of this year, telling workers that their attendance would be tracked daily and failure to comply could lead to termination.

However, some employees returning to the office said they were met with a lack of space and privacy, with one worker calling the mandate "a mess."

Redfin

In April last year, real estate company Redfin announced an updated return-to-office policy via a memo from CEO Glenn Kelman.

The memo noted that starting July 2023, Redfin would require "headquarters employees" who live within 20 miles of the company's Seattle, San Francisco, and Frisco offices to work from the office for a full day on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Those who live beyond the 20-mile radius are required to visit the office in-person once a quarter for a day or more of meetings, the company said.

In order to hold employees accountable, the memo included a "no-exceptions" section, reading that "to determine your distance from an office, we'll use Google Maps, with the distance from your home address measured in miles driven over roads by car."

Salesforce

Salesforce told employees in an internal memo seen by The San Francisco Standard that the majority of workers have to be in an office four to five days a week as of October 1.

The new policy is mandated for select staff in sales, workplace services, data center engineering, and on-site support technicians, according to the memo.

Early last year, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff revised the company's annual strategic plan, including return-to-office mandates, according to a draft shared in an internal Slack message viewed by Business Insider.

The updated draft return-to-office policy required nonremote employees to work three days a week in the office and employees in "non-remote" and "customer-facing" roles to work four days a week. Engineers must work from the office 10 days per quarter, down from 20 in the initial draft, which was updated based on employee feedback.

Snap

Snap implemented a new mandate in September 2023, requiring employees to work in an office at least four days a week. The change represented a shift from the company's former "remote first" policy, which allowed employees to work from home or elsewhere.

Employees previously told BI that some managers told them the company is able to track workers' WiFi connections to see who is complying.

Starbucks

In a January 2023 memo to corporate staffers, then-CEO Howard Schultz said employees within commuting distance would be required to return to the office at least three days a week.

Schultz said some staff had failed to "meet their minimum promise of one day a week" and also pointed out that Starbucks baristas didn't have the "privilege" of working from home. The executive had previously said he "pleaded" with workers to come back to the office.

Starbucks employees responded by signing an open letter protesting the company's return-to-office mandate.

In September, former Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol took over as CEO of the coffee chain.

In October, the company threatened to fire staff if they did not comply with the RTO policy, Bloomberg first reported, citing an internal memo.

Beginning in January, the company plans to initiate a "standardized process" to hold workers accountable to the hybrid schedule at the team level, where consequences will cover "up to, and including, separation," according to the email obtained by Bloomberg.

Employees, however, may request exemptions due to physical or mental medical reasons.

Tesla

In June 2022, Tesla employees were notified of a mandatory return-to-office policy.

The email from Elon Musk included wording such as "If you don't show up, we will assume you have resigned," and noted that everyone at Tesla must work from the office at least 40 hours a week.

Musk, who has called remote work "morally wrong," nodded to his frequent presence at Tesla factories as the reason for the business' success. "If I had not done that, Tesla would long ago have gone bankrupt," he wrote in the email.

Ubisoft

In September, Ubisoft, the France-based maker of the popular "Assassin's Creed" and "Far Cry" video game series, ordered its staff worldwide to return to the office three days a week.

French workers at the video game maker went on strike on October 15 over the RTO mandate.

X

After buying X, formerly Twitter, in 2022, Musk told employees that not showing up to an office when they're able to was the same as a resignation.

Musk also told staffers in an email that remote work was no longer allowed and that employees were expected to be in the office for at least 40 hours a week unless given explicit approval to work elsewhere.

In 2023, X, then Twitter, National Labor Relations Board filed a formal complaint saying that X had illegally fired an employee who complained about Musk's RTO policy.

The complaint said that Yao Yue, a principal software engineer, criticized the mandate, tweeting, "don't resign, let him fire you." She also posted, "don't be fired. Seriously" in a company Slack channel.

Yue was then fired five days later and told it was due to violating an unspecified company policy.

Uber

In a memo obtained by Business Insider, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told employees that beginning in April 2022, Uber staffers in 35 of the company's locations were required to return to the office at least half the time. He added that on other days, staffers were allowed to work remotely and that some could be entirely remote if they got clearance from their managers.

CEO Dara Khosrowshahi recently said remote work took away some of Uber's "most frequent customers," adding that "there is an audience who kind of stopped using us as frequently as they used to."

Walmart

Along with slashing hundreds of jobs, Walmart also asked previously remote employees in the US to move to offices.

Staffers located in smaller offices in Dallas, Atlanta, and Toronto are additionally being directed to the company's central hubs, including its headquarters in Arkansas or New Jersey, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The retail giant will still permit hybrid schedules as long as workers come in-person most of the time, according to the outlet.

The Washington Post

William Lewis, CEO and publisher of The Washington Post, told staffers in early November that they would be required to return to the office five days a week, according to a memo obtained by BI.

"I want that great office energy for us every day," Lewis wrote, referring to the energy in the office during election week. "I am reliably informed that is how it used to be here before Covid, and it's important we get this back."

All employees were expected to return to the office by June 2, 2025, while managers were expected to return by February 3, 2025.

After starting remote work in 2020, the Post previously required employees to return to the office three days a week in early 2022.

The announcement at the Post came shortly after Amazon's return-to-office mandate. The Post is owned by Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and executive chairman.

Zoom

Zoom, the darling of remote work, said in 2022 that less than 2% of staffers work in person full time. However, last year, the video-calling company asked employees to return to the office.

Workers living within 50 miles of one of its offices were mandated to work there at least two days a week.

"We believe that a structured hybrid approach – meaning employees that live near an office need to be onsite two days a week to interact with their teams – is most effective for Zoom," a spokesperson previously said in a statement. "As a company, we are in a better position to use our own technologies, continue to innovate, and support our global customers."

Stumped on what to get my mom for Christmas this year, I turned, desperately, to Perplexity AI's chatbot. In response to my initial broad question: "What should I get my mom for Christmas?," the robo-elf gave me links to several gift guides published on sites including Target and Country Living. Then the chatbot suggested generic favorites like a Stanley mug and a foot massager. But as I scrolled, it also dropped links directly to more esoteric gifts, including a mug with Donald Trump on it. "You are a really, really great mom," the mug read. "Other moms? Losers, total disasters." I hadn't given Perplexity any indication of political ideology among my family, but the bot seemed to think sipping from Trump's visage every morning was a gift any mother would love. Then it suggested I make a jar and stuff it with memories I've written down. A cute idea, but I did let Perplexity know that I'm in my 30s — I don't think the made-at-home gift for mom is going to cut it.

'Tis the season to scramble and buy tons of stuff people don't need or really even want. At least that's how it can feel when trying to come up with gifts for family members who have everything already. Money has been forked over for restaurant gift cards that collect dust or slippers and scarves that pile up; trendy gadgets are often relegated to junk drawers by March. As artificial intelligence becomes more integrated into online shopping, this whole process should get easier — if AI can come to understand the art behind giving a good gift. Shopping has become one of Perplexity's top search categories in the US, particularly around the holidays, Sara Platnick, a spokesperson for Perplexity, tells me. While Platnick didn't comment directly on individual gift suggestions Perplexity's chatbots makes, she tells me that product listings provided in responses are determined by "ratings and its relevance to a user's request."

There are chatbots to consult for advice this holiday season, like Perplexity and ChatGPT, but AI is increasingly seeping into the entire shopping experience. From customer-service chatbots handling online shopping woes to ads serving recommendations that follow you across the web, AI's presence has ramped up alongside the explosion of interest in generative AI. Earlier this year, Walmart unveiled generative-AI-powered search updates that allow people to search for things like "football watch party" instead of looking for items like chips and salsa individually; Google can put clothes on virtual models in a range of sizes to give buyers a better idea of how they'll look. In a world with more options than ever, there's more help from AI, acting as robo-elves in a way — omnipresent and sometimes invisible as you shop across the web.

For the indecisive shopper, AI may be a silver bullet to choosing from hundreds of sweaters to buy, plucking the best one from obscurity and putting an end to endless scrolling — or it might help to serve up so many targeted ads that it leads people to overconsume.

Either way, AI has been completely changing the e-commerce game. "It allows a company to be who the customer wants it to be," says Hala Nelson, a professor of mathematics at James Madison University. "You cannot hire thousands of human assistants to assist each customer, but you can deploy thousands of AI assistants." Specialization comes from using third-party data to track activity and preferences across the web. In a way, that's the personalized level of service high-end stores have always provided to elite shoppers. Now, instead of a consultation, the expertise is built on surveillance.

Companies also use AI to forecast shopping trends and manage inventory, which can help them prepare and keep items in stock for those last-minute shoppers. Merchants are constantly looking for AI to get them more — to bring more eyes to their websites, to get people to add more items to their carts, and ultimately to actually check out and empty their carts. In October and early November, digital retailers using AI tech and agents increased the average value of an order by 7% when compared to sites that did not employ the technology, according to Salesforce data. The company predicted AI and shopping agents to influence 19% of orders during the week of cyber deals around Thanksgiving. And AI can help "level the playing field for small businesses," says Adam Nathan, the founder and CEO of Blaze, an AI marketing tool for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

"They don't want to necessarily be Amazon, Apple, or Nike, they just want to be the No. 1 provider of their service or product in their local community," Nathan says. "They're not worried about AI taking their job — they're worried about a competitor using AI. They see it as basically a way to get ahead."

AI early adopters in the e-commerce space benefited last holiday season, but the tech has become even more common this year, says Guillaume Luccisano, the founder and CEO of Yuma AI, a company that automates customer service for sellers that use Shopify. Some merchants that used Yuma AI during the Black Friday shopping craze automated more than 60% of their customer-support tickets, he says. While some people lament having to deal with a bot instead of a person, Luccisano says the tech is getting better, and people are mostly concerned about whether their problem is getting solved, not whether the email came from a real person or generative AI.

After my ordeal with Perplexity, I turned to see how ChatGPT would fare in helping me find gifts for the rest of my family. For my 11-year-old cousin, it suggested a Fitbit or smartwatch for kids to help her "stay active." A watch that tracks activity isn't something I feel comfortable giving a preteen, so I provided some more details. I told ChatGPT she loved the "Twilight" series, so it suggested a T-shirt with the Cullen family crest and a "Twilight"-themed journal to write fan fiction. It told me I could likely find these items on Etsy but it didn't give me direct links. (As her cool millennial cousin who has lived to tell of my own "Twilight" phase in 2007, I did end up buying a makeup bag from Etsy with a movie scene printed on it.) I also asked ChatGPT for suggestions for my 85-year-old grandpa, and it came up with information about electronic picture frames — but the bulk of our family photos are stuffed in albums and shoeboxes in his closet and not easily digitized.

I could navigate this list because these are deep contextual things that I know about my family members, something AI doesn't know yet. Many of the best gifts I've ever received are from friends and family members who stumbled upon something they knew I would love — a vinyl record tucked in a bin or a print from an independent artist on display at a craft show. AI can play a role in helping people discover new items they may never have known to buy online, but it can't replace that intuition we have when we find the perfect thing for a loved one. "We're still really wrestling with: How accurate is it? How much of a black box is it?" says Koen Pauwels, a professor of marketing at Northeastern University. "Humans are way better still in getting cues from their environment and knowing the context." If you want to give a gift that's really a hit, it looks like you'll still have to give the AI elves a helping hand.

Amanda Hoover is a senior correspondent at Business Insider covering the tech industry. She writes about the biggest tech companies and trends.

• Walmart is testing out body-cams for store employees in one market in Texas.
• A spokesperson said the goal of the pilot is to improve worker safety and evaluate the results.
• Earlier this year, Axon introduced a line of cameras designed for retail and healthcare workers.

Walmart shoppers in Texas may want to think twice before losing their cool with a store employee — the interaction could be captured from an up-close-and-personal camera angle.

The retail giant is testing body-cams for store employees in the Dallas area. A Walmart spokesperson told Business Insider the goal of the pilot is to improve worker safety and evaluate the results before making long-term decisions about a wider rollout.

"While we don't talk about the specifics of our security measures, we are always looking at new and innovative technology used across the retail industry," the spokesperson said.

One shopper told CNBC they saw a receipt-checker in Denton, Texas, wearing a yellow-and-black camera earlier this month, and an image of a rack of 16 similarly colored cameras was posted last month to the r/Walmart forum on Reddit.

A Walmart-branded poster in the image instructs users in ways to wear the camera, how to stop and start recording an event, and a reminder to remove the camera when visiting break rooms or restrooms.

The charging station for the cameras is marked with the Axon brand, which is most widely known for supplying body cameras for law enforcement officers. Axon declined to comment.

Earlier this year, Axom introduced a line of cameras designed for retail and healthcare workers, which look similar to the ones in the Reddit image.

In a survey, Axon found nearly half of retail workers said they had seen or been a victim of physical or verbal violence while on the job. Of those, most surveyed said they had experienced multiple incidents.

The company said one retailer who used the cameras in an early trial saw the number of incidents cut in half, and another found the cameras to be highly effective at de-escalating confrontations.

Over the summer, TJ Maxx equipped store associates with body cameras as a method to deter crime.

"We hope that these body cameras will help us de-escalate incidents, deter crime, and demonstrate to our Associates and customers that we take safety in our stores seriously," a spokesperson said at the time.

If you are a Walmart worker who wants to share your perspective, please contact Dominick via email or text/call/Signal at 646.768.4750. Responses will be kept confidential, and Business Insider strongly recommends using a personal email and a non-work device when reaching out

If you're looking to buy a TV in 2025, you may be disappointed by the types of advancements TV brands will be prioritizing in the new year. While there's an audience of enthusiasts interested in developments in tech like OLED, QDEL, and Micro LED, plus other features like transparency and improved audio, that doesn't appear to be what the industry is focused on.

Today's TV selection has a serious dependency on advertisements and user tracking. In 2025, we expect competition in the TV industry to center around TV operating systems (OSes) and TVs' ability to deliver more relevant advertisements to viewers.

That yields a complicated question for shoppers: Are you willing to share your data with retail conglomerates and ad giants to save money on a TV?

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• The Waltons have reclaimed the title of the world's wealthiest family
• The Walmart family fortune has grown by 66% since last year to a record $432 billion.
• Jim, Rob, Alice, and the other Waltons are richer than the royal families of Abu Dhabi and Qatar.

The Waltons are once again the world's wealthiest family, ranking ahead of Gulf royalty, luxury fashion houses, and industrial dynasties.

The heirs to the Walmart fortune have grown their wealth by 66% since last year to a record $432 billion as of December 5, meaning they've regained the No.1 spot on Bloomberg's annual list of the world's richest families.

That wealth figure exceeds the market value of some of America's biggest companies including Home Depot ($412 billion), Procter & Gamble ($402 billion), and Netflix ($396 billion).

Abu Dhabi's ruling family, the Al Nahyans, topped the ranking last year with an estimated $305 billion fortune that dwarfed the Waltons' $260 billion. The two clans switched places this year with the Al Nahyans now worth $324 billion, more than $100 billion less than the Waltons.

Qatar's ruling dynasty, the Al Thanis, placed third this year with $173 billion to their name. France's Hermès family, which includes the Birkin maker's artistic director and executive chairman, landed in fourth with $171 billion. Rounding out the top five were the Kochs, the legendary US industrialists worth an estimated $149 billion.

The richest families on the planet also include Saudi Arabia's rulers, candy dynasties Mars and Ferrero, and the Wertheimer family behind Chanel.

Family fortunes

Walmart founder Sam Walton's three surviving children — Jim, Rob, and Alice — have each grown about $43 billion richer this year, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The trio joined the $100 billion club in September and ranked among the 15 richest people on the planet as of December 12 with north of $112 billion to each of their names.

Lukas and Christy Walton, the son and widow of Sam's late son, John T. Walton, also feature on Bloomberg's rich list with net worths of about $40 billion and $18 billion each.

The five Waltons' combined fortune has ballooned by more than $150 billion this year, representing a big chunk of the 25 richest families' total wealth gain of $407 billion.

The Walton family's wealth bump has been fueled by a roughly 80% surge in the retailer's stock price this year. Sam Walton gave each of his four children a 20% stake in the family enterprise early on, and his three surviving kids each own upward of 11% of Walmart — now a company valued north of $750 billion — through a family trust. They've also raked in more than $15 billion from stock sales and dividends over the years, Bloomberg says.

• I went to Target and Walmart to see which I preferred for buying Christmas presents for my teens.
• Prices at both felt similar, but Target had sales on items like board games that gave it a leg up.
• My Walmart had a lot of great stuff, but my local Target was better organized with more deals.

This year, I headed to big-box retailers Target and Walmart to do my holiday shopping.

Either seemed like it could be a one-stop shop considering I tend to buy my two teenagers gifts like festive pajamas, board games, toiletry sets, and snacks.

Here's how shopping for my kids at Target and Walmart compared this holiday season.

If your teens love cozy holiday socks, go to Target.

A Christmas Eve tradition in my house is to give my kids new pajamas, cozy socks, and a board game we can all play together after dinner.

At Target, I found the softest, cutest holiday socks for about $3 a pair, and I got a few for each kid.

Walmart had a solid selection of affordable holiday accessories.

My teenage daughter loves to wear festive accessories to holiday parties and church services throughout December, so I toss new ones into her stocking each year.

At Walmart, I found a display of super-affordable holiday accessories, such as light-up tree earrings and candy-cane-printed hair clips.

Most of the accessories were under $5 — and the display looked a bit picked-through — but I still found cute stuff for me and my daughter.

My teens love board games, and Target had great deals going on.

During my shopping trip, Target was running a sale offering up to half off on board games like Disney Villainous and Tetris.

The sale seemed to be so good that lots of spaces on the shelves had been cleared out, and many games were out of stock.

Still, I was able to snag a few board games at low prices to put away as holiday gifts.

Walmart had a great board-game section but no sales.

Walmart's board-game aisle was well-stocked, but there weren't any sales going on when I visited.

Still, I appreciated the broad selection, which included everything from dice and card games to a local version of Monopoly specific to my Florida town.

Target had fewer games in stock, but I expected that given the sale that was happening while I was shopping.

Target seemed to have all the popular water-bottle brands.

Both of my teens have a lot of insulated water bottles, but I know they'll each love getting a new one for Christmas.

At Target, I found lots of popular brands of insulated bottles and tumblers, including Stanley and Owala. I appreciated finding big-name bottles in a variety of colorways — plus, many of them were on sale.

The water-bottle selection at Walmart didn't feel as great.

I definitely didn't experience the same Stanley-shopping zen at Walmart as I did at Target.

I struggled to find trendy big-name brands in Walmart's water-bottle section, but I did see unique offerings, like Cirkul ones with flavor pods.

For the most part, though, I was surprised at how disorganized and messy this section felt at my store. A lot of the bottles and tumblers were tipped over or shoved where they didn't belong.

There were tons of festive pajamas at Target.

We're big on holiday pajamas in my family, so I couldn't wait to see the offerings at both stores.

Target felt like the perfect spot to grab matching holiday pajamas for everyone in my family … even our pets.

My local store had a huge section filled with pajamas at a few different price points. I passed a well-stocked display with $15 sets for the whole family and found some pricier, super-soft Christmas pajamas for women.

Walmart's holiday pajamas looked pretty picked-through.

At my local Walmart, I was able to locate a cardboard display that seemed to once have holiday pajamas in a range of sizes, but it was empty.

I found festive pajamas in different sections of the store for women, men, kids, and babies, but no matching sets for families.

Target had great skincare and makeup gift sets.

My teen daughter and I love to shop at Target for makeup and skincare products, especially since the chain carries nicer lines like Versed and La Roche-Posay.

In its beauty section, I found numerous holiday-themed skincare and makeup sets along with stocking-stuffer-sized minis of face masks, lip glosses, and more.

I picked up a beauty advent calendar and a few different holiday-edition Nyx Cosmetics products for my daughter, and I know she'll love them.

I really appreciated seeing men's skincare sets at Walmart.

I was excited to find an entire endcap of festive toiletry sets for men at Walmart with products from brands like Every Man Jack and Duke Cannon.

It's rare that I find men's skincare or body-care sets during the holidays, so I picked up a deodorant-and-body-wash set for my son.

Both stores had lots of holiday candy for sale.

I love putting festive versions of candies my kids already love, like Reese's and Swedish Fish, in my kids' stockings.

It's always a bit whimsical to see beloved snacks packaged up in special ways for holidays, and both Walmart and Target had plenty of these kinds of items.

I could stop by either store to fill my kids' stockings, whether I want hollow candy-cane shapes filled with Hershey's Kisses or seasonal Pez dispensers,

Throughout my trips, I found Target had more sales.

In general, I found Target's and Walmart's prices to be pretty comparable on things like pajamas, accessories, and beauty sets.

However, Target had an advantage with its seasonal sales on board games, Lego sets, and video games.

The Lego section of my store looked especially picked-through, but that's probably because sets were 20% off. At Walmart, the Lego sets appeared to be full price.

Although Target changes its offers weekly (or sometimes daily), they appear to be coming up more often than Walmart's right now.

Overall, Target felt more festive and organized — plus, it had more sales.

Both stores had excellent offerings, but Target impressed me more.

A lot of people consider Walmart to be the cheaper of the two chains, but I actually found way more sales and deals at Target — many of which made its prices much lower than Walmart's.

Target is also doing a holiday price-match offer that's hard to beat. Shoppers can request a price adjustment if any item they buy there becomes cheaper before Christmas.

Lastly, my local Target felt cleaner, brighter, and better organized than Walmart.

I'll be heading to Target for the remainder of my holiday needs, but I still swear by shopping at Walmart for groceries for the best deals on food.

• The US Appeals Court upheld a decision forcing the sale of TikTok lest it be banned in the US.
• Several investors, philanthropists, and tech giants are interested in buying the company.
• Here's what they've said they'd do with the short-form video platform if they bought it.

On Friday, a panel of three judges from the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld a law that will ban TikTok from app stores in the United States if the social media platform's parent company, the China-based ByteDance, doesn't sell its stake in the app by January 19.

In a statement about the decision, TikTok said it would appeal the decision to the Supreme Court on First Amendment grounds.

"Unfortunately, the TikTok ban was conceived and pushed through based upon inaccurate, flawed, and hypothetical information, resulting in outright censorship of the American people," TikTok's statement read. "The TikTok ban, unless stopped, will silence the voices of over 170 million Americans here in the US and around the world on January 19th, 2025."

With the app's uncertain future in the United States, a slate of ultrawealthy investors has expressed interest in buying the social media platform.

Big-name buyers, from Kevin O'Leary of "Shark Tank" to former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, have said for months that they are prepared to step in if ByteDance changes its mind or the Supreme Court decides the ban can proceed.

Here's what those who've said publicly that they want to buy TikTok would do with the platform if they acquired the app.

Representatives for TikTok did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Kevin O'Leary

In March, the "Shark Tank" mogul told CNBC he wanted to assemble a syndicate of investors to purchase the platform for about $20 to $30 billion — a fraction of its $220 billion valuation in its last funding round.

"It's the largest entertainment and business network in America as it stands today, so it's of great interest and great value," he told the outlet.

However, O'Leary said a sale likely wouldn't include TikTok's signature algorithms, so he or another purchaser would have to "re-emulate" the app's algorithms and act as a "steward" to transform the platform from "TikTok China to TikTok U.S.A."

It's unclear exactly how O'Leary might change TikTok's algorithms; however, similar short-form video services exist elsewhere on social media with their own proprietary algorithms, and he said a new version could be created under the existing TikTok brand.

Representatives for O'Leary did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Steven Mnuchin

The former treasury secretary in March said he was putting together an investor group to try to purchase TikTok, CNBC reported.

Mnuchin didn't specify any other potential investors involved in the bid or the dollar amount they planned to offer for the social media site. In a May interview with Bloomberg Television, he said he'd replicate the app's signature algorithm to continue the service.

"My plan, if we were to purchase, it would be to rebuild the technology under US leadership, make sure that it's all disconnected from ByteDance going forward, and that it is very robust and secure," Mnuchin said.

Representatives for Mnuchin did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Bobby Kotick

The Wall Street Journal reported in March that the former chief executive of Activision was considering bidding for TikTok. The outlet reported the exact amount of his proposal was unspecified but would likely be in the hundreds of billions of dollars.

The Journal reported Kotick approached OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and other possible investors during a dinner at an Allen & Co. conference, discussing a potential deal that could allow OpenAI to train its artificial intelligence models on the data gathered from the app.

A spokesperson for Kotick told Business Insider, "Mr. Kotick has always believed a comprehensive reciprocal trade framework is preferable to singling out an individual company, and he still does."

Frank McCourt

The former Dodgers owner and former CEO of McCourt Global has turned democratizing and improving the internet into a major philanthropic focus through his Project Liberty project. The company announced in March that McCourt had put together a bid to purchase TikTok.

McCourt, during a December 8 appearance on CBS News, said he had "circled over $20 billion" for the potential sale.

"We're very serious about raising whatever capital is required to buy the platform and to be clear, we're looking to move the 170 million users over to a new protocol where the individuals will own and control their identity and their data," McCourt said. "We're not looking to replicate the existing version."

The billionaire businessman has titled his TikTok purchase project "The People's Bid." He has secured the backing of Guggenheim Securities, an investment banking firm, and Kirkland & Ellis, one of the world's largest law firms.

McCourt told CBS that the People's Bid aims to protect user privacy and move users to "a new stack where you can't harvest without permission, so individuals will own and control their identity and their data" to promote an internet service that respects its users "as opposed to exploits them."

A spokesperson for McCourt directed Business Insider to a public statement by the billionaire following the Appeals Court decision upholding the law which could force the sale of the app.

"Now that the Court has spoken, The People's Bid is prepared to move forward with our bid for TikTok," McCourt's statement reads. "We are going to rebuild TikTok and prove that it's possible to enjoy the internet without sacrificing our privacy and safety."

Other possible investors

Other big names have previously shown interest in buying TikTok, including Microsoft, which in 2020 tried and failed to acquire the platform when, during his first administration in August 2020, President Donald Trump, citing concerns about ByteDance's ties to Beijing, issued executive orders forcing ByteDance to sell its TikTok US operations to an American company.

Walmart and the software company Oracle also assembled a bid to buy TikTok in 2020, but TikTok ultimately defeated Trump's orders in court and the acquisition plans did not materialize.

The companies have not publicly said whether they would make another offer now. Walmart, Oracle, and Microsoft representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider sent over the weekend.

• Execs at Walmart, Target, and more retailers have given similar descriptions of US consumer health.
• BI combed through earnings-call transcripts to round up the words they used to talk about shoppers.
• Despite the challenges, Americans continue to spend — even if it's at the last minute.

Pressured. Cautious. Stretched.

If those words describe how you're feeling amid holiday spending, you're far from alone.

Money is tight for many Americans these days, and executives at Walmart, Target, Dollar General, Dollar Tree, and more have used similar language to describe the state of US consumer health this holiday season.

"I want to be sensitive to those that have lower income levels and acknowledge that this inflationary cycle has been really detrimental and created a lot of pressure for them and their families," Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said Tuesday at the Morgan Stanley Global Consumer & Retail Conference.

"People at the other end of the continuum," he added, "they may be cherry-picking categories depending on what they're looking for."

In Target's quarterly earnings call in November, CEO Brian Cornell described the toll high prices were taking on American households.

"Consumers tell us their budgets remain stretched and they're shopping carefully as they work to overcome the cumulative impact of multiple years of price inflation," he said.

"They're becoming increasingly resourceful in their shopping behaviors, waiting to buy until the last moment of need, focusing on deals and then stocking up when they find them," Cornell added.

Dollar Tree's interim CEO, Michael Creedon, said low-, middle-, and high-income shoppers were showing signs of budget pressure.

"They started eating more at home and cutting going out. Now they're reducing some parties," he said during the company's quarterly earnings call on Wednesday.

On Thursday, Dollar General's CEO painted a similar picture as the discount store gained share among middle- and higher-income households.

"The consumer is seeking value, trying to make ends meet," he said.

Of course, retailers have been using words like "pressured," "stretched," and "cautious" to talk about their customers for several years now.

Data from AlphaSense indicates the terms are mentioned near the word "consumer" dozens of times in transcripts from major retailers this year.

Despite persistent challenges, shoppers continue to spend strong.

"We see a consumer who is seeking value in sales events and one who is also willing to spend on high-price-point products when they need to or when there is new compelling technology," Best Buy CEO Corie Barry said during a third-quarter earnings call.

Nowhere is that more apparent than this year's holiday sales season, which is off to a roaring start that could help compensate for the five fewer selling days between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

While retailers may have to compete a little harder to win sales this year than before, and investors may have to accept somewhat narrower profits, US shoppers are playing through the pain — even if that means more deal-hunting, last-minute shopping trips or buy-now, pay-later plans.

• Walmart's chief, Doug McMillon, got his wine sent to him by drone.
• He lives in one of the areas in the US in which Walmart offers drone deliveries.
• He said Walmart's future looked like "urgent deliveries happening in a really fast time."

Walmart's CEO Doug McMillon gets his groceries in style.

Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Global Consumer and Retail Conference in New York on Tuesday, the head of the country's largest supermarket chain said he got wine delivered by drone right to his front door.

He said he ordered the drone delivery when his wife Shelley realized she didn't have a key ingredient in the kitchen.

"A few weeks ago, Shelley's making Chicken Marsala, and she said out loud, 'I forgot the cooking wine,' which meant I was supposed to get up off the couch and stop watching football and go get Marsala cooking wine," McMillon said.

"But what we had was a drone delivery in less than 15 minutes that dropped it right at my front door, and that was pretty cool," said McMillon, who lives in Bentonville, Arkansas, where Walmart is headquartered.

"I think our future looks like big baskets moving slowly at a value and urgent deliveries happening in a really fast time in a variety of ways," McMillon said.

Walmart launched drone deliveries in six states in 2022 but was forced to scale back in recent years.

In August, DroneUp, Walmart's drone delivery partner, told Axios that drone deliveries were not economically sustainable for smaller, low-cost packages. They closed 18 Walmart delivery hubs in Phoenix, Salt Lake City, and Tampa. The retailer currently offers drone deliveries in three locations in the US — Bentonville, Dallas, and Virginia Beach.

Walmart aims to have the largest drone delivery footprint of any retailer in the country. In January, it expanded its drone delivery radius to serve 1.8 million additional households in the Dallas-Forth Worth area.

Drone deliveries cost $12.99 per trip for Walmart+ members and $19.99 per delivery for non-members.

McMillon's comments come as Walmart reported strong third-quarter earnings in November, beating analyst expectations.

It saw comparable US sales growth of 5.3% year over year and reported an operating income growth of 8.2%.

Walmart representatives didn't respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• I ordered a dozen custom cupcakes from Walmart, Publix, and Wegmans.
• The Wegmans cupcakes were the adult favorite, but more than double the price of the other options.
• Walmart's cupcakes were the kids' favorite and the cheapest option — but Publix also impressed me.

With my daughter's 4th birthday coming up, I started to scope out different cupcake options for her party.

Parents will be attending with their kids, which means buying enough cupcakes for the group could get expensive.

As I researched, I was surprised by the price differences for custom cupcakes from some of my nearby chains, including Walmart, Wegmans, and Publix.

So, I ordered a dozen from each to see which cupcakes would have the best value, look, and flavor. Here's how they stacked up.

I ordered cupcakes with white buttercream frosting and rainbow sprinkles from each store.

Each of these stores has premade cupcakes available in their bakery sections, but I wanted to see how the chains would handle my custom order.

I used the online ordering option for each store and chose cupcakes topped with white buttercream frosting and rainbow sprinkles.

All three chains had an easy-to-use system that let me quickly choose the options I wanted. Each of my orders was ready on time and accurate.

Kids and adults judged the cupcakes on appearance and taste.

My priority was finding a good-value cupcake that my daughter loved, though I also wanted to see what the adults at the party thought.

I had seven kids, ages 4 to 12, and eight adults try each cupcake in a blind taste test.

Each participant rated which cupcake was the most aesthetically pleasing and which tasted best without knowing what store it came from.

The Walmart cupcakes were the smallest but also the cheapest.

I paid $8.13, including tax, for a dozen cupcakes at Walmart. They were the cheapest option by far.

These cupcakes were noticeably smaller than the rest, but if they'd been the only option, I don't think I would've thought they were small.

Even so, the kids unanimously agreed these were the most visually appealing and that they'd choose to eat them first.

It seemed fair considering these cupcakes had the most sprinkles in the most vibrant colors compared to the ones from Wegmans and Publix.

The kids loved the Walmart cupcake. The adults did not.

In my opinion, the frosting on the Walmart cupcakes was overwhelmingly sweet and the cake was dry with little flavor.

The other adults agreed and, as a result, we ranked these as our least favorite.

However, all of the kids rated the Walmart cupcakes as their top pick, likely due to the super-sweet frosting and pretty aesthetic.

Wegmans' cupcakes looked the most gourmet but came with a high price tag.

The cupcakes from Wegmans were the most expensive at $24.90 for a dozen — more than triple the cost of the Walmart cupcakes.

The cupcakes were almost identical in size to the Publix ones and bigger than the Walmart ones. The frosting on these was swirled the highest.

Wegmans' cupcakes had the best flavor and frosting.

The adults unanimously picked the cupcakes from Wegmans as their favorite. The buttercream frosting was light, airy, and perfectly sweet.

We also agreed the cake was also the most moist and flavorful of the ones we tried.

The icing didn't extend all the way to the edge of the cupcake, which made it look like it came from a more high-end bakery. This might have been a more important factor had these been for an adult gathering, not a kid's birthday party.

The Publix cupcakes were a good compromise between flavor and price.

A dozen cupcakes from Publix set me back $10.81.

I personally found these cupcakes to be the most visually appealing, with large amounts of icing and an array of sprinkles on top. Their flavor was good, too.

The Publix cupcakes seemed pretty balanced.

Publix's frosting wasn't as light as Wegmans' frosting, but it wasn't as overly sweet as Walmart's.

The cake was also fairly moist and had more notes of vanilla than Walmart's, but wasn't as flavorful as Wegmans' version.

For the occasion and the price, Walmart was the winner —otherwise, I'd choose Publix.

Even though we adults thought Wegmans' cupcakes were the best, I didn't think they were worth the high price tag.

For a child's birthday, I'll probably stick to the Walmart cupcakes since they were the least expensive and the clear kids' favorite.

For adult birthdays or celebrations, I still wouldn't pick Wegmans. The price is just too high for me to justify buying them.

Instead, I'd go for Publix cupcakes, which are almost as good and less than half the price.

Walmart just closed its acquisition of popular television maker Vizio in an effort to boost its advertising business. The acquisition was initially reported back in February; however, it took a few months to complete due to the waiting period under federal regulations.  The all-cash deal is valued at $2.3 billion.  With this strategic move, Walmart […]

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• This month, Walmart launched its first shoppable feature film, "Jingle Bell Love," with Roku.
• It's ramping up its efforts this holiday to get people to shop while watching TV.
• Walmart made some key changes to its shoppable entertainment strategy this year.

Walmart is making its biggest push yet this holiday season to get people to shop while watching TV by debuting its first feature-length movie.

Last year, Walmart brought viewers "Add to Heart," a rom-com series with integrated shopping features that was designed to be watched on social media. It's building on that this year by sponsoring its first "shoppable" feature film, "Jingle Bell Love," which is a Roku Original movie.

"Jingle Bell Love" is streaming now on The Roku Channel. Here's the logline: Jack Cooper, played by Joey McIntyre from "New Kids on the Block," visits his late wife's hometown for Christmas and gets more than he bargained for when his 10-year-old daughter matches him up with a local shop owner (Michelle Morgan).

Last year's "Add to Heart" was a test for Walmart to see if it could get people to shop directly while watching episodic TV. Online reviewers were mixed in their assessments: Some said the quality of the series was decent while others criticized the script and said the shopping experience felt clunky.

Walmart didn't share specific results of last year's experiment but made some key tweaks this time around:

• First, "Jingle Bell Love" is a feature film. Walmart learned that the longer people watched, the more likely they were to shop, and it hopes a film will encourage people to watch from start to finish.
• Walmart also produced "Add to Heart" itself, while "Jingle Bell Love" is a Roku production.
• "Add to Heart" crammed 330 shoppable products into the show. "Jingle Bell Love," in contrast, doesn't have any direct product integration. Instead, there are two "shoppable moments" featuring overlays with five Walmart products that are contextually relevant to the scene that people can buy directly on their TVs.
• During its "Add to Heart" launch, Walmart found people wanted more and easier ways to shop. This year, it's added the ability for people to link their Walmart and Roku accounts by clicking an ad on the screen with their remote, which sends a prompt to their phone to sign in to Walmart.com. From there, whenever a Roku user reaches the checkout screen, their Walmart payment details are pre-populated so they can buy with a single tap.

"'Add to Heart' was one of the first times that we really created that fully shoppable type of video experience," Aimee Roesler, senior director of social commerce at Walmart, told Business Insider. "One of our key insights is that it can be very hard to shop from your remote control."

Are people ready for shoppable TV?

Retailers have been pushing "shoppable TV" — where people can buy products straight from their TV sets — for some time as they try to drive sales and media companies try to connect ads to business results.

For instance, during the CMT Music Awards in April, Paramount used QR codes to try to get people to buy items inspired by the red carpet looks. NBCUniversal had a tool that let people order food while watching the Olympics this summer.

Still, there's been a big challenge for these efforts: Shopping on TV isn't the most natural behavior for viewers. Add the fact that shoppable TV doesn't always fit neatly into ad agencies' buying practices, and it's been slow to take off.

Christopher Vollmer, a partner and managing director at UTA's MediaLink, said retailers and media companies have gotten smarter about shoppable TV, knowing video content is where most consumers discover new brands and products. He sees them increasingly prioritizing premium content environments like sports for their efforts, as that's where there are big, live audiences. This year, for example, Walmart and NBCUniversal are bringing shoppable ads to a Thanksgiving Day NFL game.

As the biggest US retailer, Walmart has a strong incentive to figure it out. The company has been experimenting in many ways. It's trying shoppable ads on social media, gaming platforms, and streaming TV.

Walmart said Roku was a natural partner, as 78% of the platform's audience are Walmart shoppers. Despite the large customer overlap, in the past couple of years of testing, Walmart said 70% of its shoppers from Roku were new to Walmart.com.

"Now we've gained a new type of shopping behavior and a new customer who has typically shopped our store now is shopping our store and our website, which is very, very exciting," Roesler said.

"Jingle Bell Love" isn't the only way Walmart will try to get people to shop from their TVs this holiday season. It created four videos — inspired by the YouTube ambient room trend — that are meant to immerse the viewer in a pleasant environment. All are shoppable with QR codes linking to decor and gifts sold at Walmart. The rooms portray a cozy chalet, a festive holiday party scene, Santa's reindeer in flight, and Luke's Diner of "Gilmore Girls" (an example of Walmart's effort to integrate itself into the culture). They'll be streamed on YouTube, YouTube TV, and Roku starting December 3.

Shoppable ad breaks will also pop up during a family movie night series in which Walmart is teaming up with Roku to offer classics like "Stuart Little" and "Miracle on 34th Street" on The Roku Channel.

Julie Herron drove by the Aldi near her home in Nashville for years before she went in. She usually shopped at Publix, but in 2021, when inflation was sending grocery prices soaring, her curiosity got the better of her. She was shocked at what she found in Aldi.

Everything there was cheap, she said. The store also had cool products, like a variety of German cheeses and $1.59 makeup-removal wipes she said were "superior, honestly," to a comparable $20 product at Sephora.

Aldi has become Herron's go-to store. "My friends say that they call me the 'Aldi Queen,'" Herron, a retired elementary-school teacher, told me. "I go every week."

As grocery prices have jumped by double digits over the past few years, people have felt the sting. For many, Aldi has been a source of solace. A recent Motley Fool analysis found that a basket of 20 products that cost about $65 at Aldi was $11 more at Kroger and about $54 more at Whole Foods. Though Aldi isn't the biggest grocery chain in the US — according to Euromonitor, it captured just 1.4% of US grocery sales last year, compared with Walmart's 25% — it offers a lot of things shoppers are looking for these days: organic meat, store brands, and a quick shopping trip. As a result, it has attracted loyal fans who proudly sport Aldi-branded tote bags, pants, and flip-flops. And it's the fastest-growing grocery chain in America by new store openings, a title it has held for five years, according to the real-estate services company JLL.

The US grocery business is ruthless. Competition is fierce, and profit margins are slim. Many have tried and failed to find success. So how did a German grocery chain find such a ravenous following in America?

From its start in Germany after World War II, Aldi's founders, Theo and Karl Albrecht, were singularly focused on keeping prices low. The brothers expanded their family-run store into a chain of 77 stores in Germany by 1954 with the aim of minimizing expenses and maximizing profit. They didn't advertise. They offered only shelf-stable items that sold well, eliminating the need to buy and run refrigerators. Shoppers even picked their own items off the shelves — a radical concept at a time when German shoppers were used to being served at a counter.

When Aldi opened its first US store in Iowa City, Iowa, in 1976, it used a similar approach. A newspaper ad at the time proclaimed that the store had "no perishables," "no fancy shelving," and "no fancy floor." It promised lower prices for a variety of items, from baby shampoo to salad dressing. The ad estimated that the cost of a basket of goods at Aldi was 18% less than at a rival.

Though that store ended up closing in 1977, Aldi kept working to perfect its formula for American shoppers, largely by going smaller. The Iowa City store was about 40,000 square feet — close in size to a typical modern US supermarket — but the hundreds of stores Aldi opened in the next two decades were just about 10,000 square feet. This meant that Aldi could carry only a fraction of the items that its supermarket rivals could, but it had a solution: Go smaller with selection, too. Instead of stocking a dozen types of ketchup, it sold only one or two. The model caught on, and by 2004 the chain had 700 locations across the country.

Over the years Aldi has found clever ways to become even more efficient. Today, for instance, produce like apples, oranges, and broccoli are sold in prepackaged units to save time weighing and pricing each item. Many shelf-stable items are put on the sales floor in the same cartons they arrived in. Employees often rotate between ringing up customers and stocking shelves. To get a shopping cart, customers have to provide a quarter, which they get back when they return the cart — a system that saves the company from needing parking-lot attendants to round up carts. Though shoppers must bring their own bags and pack them themselves, the prepackaged produce and large barcodes on products contribute to a speedy process.

A September study of grocery prices in Charlotte, North Carolina, by analysts at Bank of America found that while Aldi had raised prices by more than other grocers over the previous year, it was still cheaper than local Walmarts (which were cheaper than Kroger-owned chains and Whole Foods).

Aldi now has about 2,400 stores in the US, with another 800 planned for the next four years. Foot-traffic data from the location-data company Placer.ai indicates that the number of shoppers who visited Aldi stores in the spring of 2022 increased from the same period in 2019. This year, foot traffic at Aldi's stores has grown by 10% to 18% each month compared with 2023, more than double the rise among traditional grocery stores.

Sumone Udono, a trucker based in Wisconsin, has frequented an Aldi that's a 10-minute walk from her home for decades. She buys everything from the brand's organic pistachios to the spices she estimates would cost double at a traditional supermarket.

Selling others on Aldi, though, wasn't always easy. She recalled that in the early 2000s, when she ran a concession stand at her kids' baseball games, she tried to convince the other parents to replace Oscar Mayer hot dogs with the Aldi equivalent to lower prices. The parents were hesitant but ultimately agreed to sell both and see how it went. The Aldi dogs ended up outselling the name-brand ones.

Relying on store brands is one of the most successful cost-cutting tactics Aldi has implemented. Aldi says roughly 90% of the items in its stores are from the grocer's own brands. For comparison, about 20% of groceries sold in the US last year were store brands, according to the Food Marketing Institute.

Scott Patton, a vice president of national buying and customer interaction at Aldi USA, said that having so many private-label products saved the company costs associated with national brands, such as advertising fees. It also gives Aldi more of a say in how products are created — for instance, Aldi worked with one of its mandarin-orange suppliers to reduce the amount of plastic in its packaging, a move which helped save Aldi money, Patton said. Costco and Trader Joe's similarly use store brands to cut costs.

Patton said that relying so much on its store brands increases the pressure for Aldi to find just the right items. "If we don't have the right quality at the right price for the consumer, there's not another option for them to pick from."

To accomplish that, he said Aldi tests about 35,000 products a year. In some cases Aldi has found success designing its products to resemble more-familiar brands. For example, it sells Clancy's nacho-cheese-flavored tortilla chips, which come in a red bag with a triangle logo reminiscent of Doritos, and L'oven Hawaiian sweet rolls, which are comparable to King's Hawaiian rolls.

Phil Lempert, a food industry analyst and editor of the website Supermarket Guru, said that many shoppers used to look down on store brands. "For my parents, there was a stigma." But these days, Gen Z and millennial customers are less likely to care about brand and more likely to prioritize price.

It helps that many Aldi-brand products don't seem generic and boring. It stocks brioche, Dutch Emmental cheese, and chili-lime cashews. "It's a German company, so they have a lot of international products, especially cheese," Herron said.

She's a fan of what's known as Aldi's "Aisle of Shame" — or as the store calls it, the Aldi Finds aisle, a section in the center of most Aldi stores with miscellaneous low-cost nonfood items that change every Wednesday. The aisle's items have included rugs and Dutch ovens — and it has garnered a loyal following. The Facebook group Aldi Aisle of Shame Community has 1.5 million members, the most active of whom post photos of their finds. Recently, fall-themed scented candles were making a splash. In October, the hit find was a pressure-point massage cane.

To cash in on the growing fan base, Aldi has released two collections of branded apparel and accessories. Last fall's selection — "Aldi-das," as some on TikTok call it — included canvas slip-on shoes, travel mugs, and a backpack. Lempert said it's a big change from the Aldi of the 1970s. "Twenty-five years ago, the people who went to Aldi were just looking to save money," he said. "Now it's very hip to go to Aldi."

In 2023, Aldi agreed to buy 400 stores from Southeastern Grocers, including many run by Winn-Dixie, a Florida chain that became a household name in the South during the 20th century. Analysts at the consumer-data firm Dunnhumby said the acquisition should "raise alarm bells for retailers not only in the Southeast but throughout the US."

Of course, Aldi's expansion faces headwinds. Americans have lots of choices for where they shop, and recent entrants like Amazon and Lidl, another discount chain based in Germany that launched in the US in 2017, are competing for market share.

Devout Aldi fans might don their branded windbreakers and dart straight to the nearest Aldi, but most Americans just head to whichever store is closest, said Zak Stambor, a senior analyst who covers retail and e-commerce for EMARKETER, a sister company of Business Insider. "Even if I want to save money on groceries and I fit the demographics of the Aldi customer, if I have to drive 15, 20, or 25 minutes to an Aldi, I'm not likely to do that on a regular basis," he said. Twelve states, including Washington and Colorado, don't have an Aldi.

Then there's the fact that grocery-price inflation, which has pushed many people toward the discount grocer, slowed to 1% in the year that ended in October — though, inflation may return if the Trump administration enacts new tariffs. Walmart recently said it planned to raise prices if Trump's tariffs are implemented.

Lempert, the grocery analyst, thinks Aldi's growth is only getting started. He has met the CEO of Aldi USA, Jason Hart, and toured the company's American headquarters in Illinois. He expects to see even more Aldi stores opening. "By the end of this decade," he said, "they'll probably have 4,000 or 5,000 stores."

Alex Bitter is a senior retail reporter at Business Insider.

• Several companies have pulled back DEI programs amid backlash from a conservative activist.
• Robby Starbuck has led social media campaigns against companies for their DEI practices.
• Companies that have withdrawn or toned down their DEI initiatives include Walmart, Lowe's, and Ford.

Nissan and Walmart are some of the latest companies to roll back their diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives amid backlash following a pressure campaign from a conservative activist.

Many of these campaigns have been led by Robby Starbuck, a prominent conservative activist with a sizable social media following. He argues that these initiatives don't align with the values of companies' largely conservative consumer bases.

The move away from DEI policies is part of an ongoing wave of backlash against diversity programs at American companies. Tech companies such as Microsoft, Meta, and Zoom cut DEI programs this year, Business Insider reported in July, and law firms, including Winston & Strawn, faced lawsuits for affirmative action.

While activists like Starbuck are loudly criticizing companies and other groups, 61% of Americans support DEI practices, according to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll in April.

The Human Rights Campaign slammed companies' DEI rollbacks in an August statement to BI.

"Decisions to cut DEI initiatives send a clear signal to employees that their employers simply don't care about equality in the workplace. Putting politics ahead of workers and consumers only hurts the same folks that these businesses rely on," wrote Eric Bloem, the nonprofit group's vice president of programs and corporate advocacy.

Here are how some companies have cut their DEI programs.

Harley-Davidson

In August, Harley-Davidson said on X that it would drop diversity-based spending goals from suppliers, halt socially motivated employee training, and withdraw from an annual LGBTQ acceptance rating by the Human Rights Campaign, Bloomberg reported.

Harley told Bloomberg that the company was "saddened by the negativity on social media over the last few weeks, designed to divide the Harley-Davidson community," following Starbuck's calls on X for the company to apologize and change its policies.

Bloem, from the Human Rights Campaign, said in the statement to BI that retreating from DEI hurts employees and customers.

"Harley-Davidson's choice to back away from the Corporate Equality Index is an impulsive decision fueled by fringe right-wing actors and MAGA extremists who believe they can bully their way into dismantling initiatives that help everyone thrive in the workplace," Bloem wrote.

John Deere

John Deere has pulled back on its DEI commitments, including no longer participating in cultural awareness events and abolishing the company's pronoun policy, BI reported in July.

While John Deere did not publicly announce the reason for its decision, the shift came following online criticism from Starbuck in a video from X, which garnered over 5 million views in July.

Tractor Supply Company

Tractor Supply significantly scaled back its DEI programs, including eliminating diversity roles and withdrawing from Pride event sponsorship. The company also announced that it would no longer provide data to the Human Rights Campaign, and it would end its carbon emission goals. This came after Starbuck's criticized the company for promoting what he labeled as "woke" policies, NPR reported in June.

Polaris

While Starbuck did not specifically target Polaris, the Harley competitor has reduced its DEI efforts, including removing any mention of the term from its web pages. In a statement to Bloomberg, the company emphasized its intention to abstain from political discussion.

Lowe's

Home improvement retailer Lowe's said that it would scale back its DEI programs in an internal note viewed by Bloomberg.

Per the memo, the company will stop participating in surveys run by the Human Rights Campaign, and it will merge resource groups for minority employees into one umbrella organization, Bloomberg reported on August 27.

Starbuck said on X that he caused Lowe's policy shift. However, a Lowe's spokesperson told Bloomberg that they had already begun making changes prior to Starbuck's involvement.

Lowe's has a consumer base largely consisting of rural baby boomers, according to data from the consumer analytics firm Numerator.. The company was labeled "best place to work for LGBTQ equality" by the Human Rights Campaign in Lowe's 2021 culture, diversity, and inclusion report.

Orlando Gonzales, the senior vice president of programs of research and training at the Human Rights Campaign, told BI in a statement that scaling back from DEI policies would have negative consequences for companies in the long run.

"Companies should not cower to a random guy with zero business experience," Gonzales said, citing Starbuck's removal from the Tennessee GOP ballot in 2022.

Ford

In an internal email shared with Bloomberg by Starbuck, the carmaker said that it would pull out of certain diversity rankings, such as the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index.

The company also said that it would reorient its employee resource groups to make them accessible to all staff. Ford also pledged to be less involved in political matters and changed some corporate sponsorships.

Ford faced backlash last month after it saw quality issues and vehicle recalls.

Starbuck wrote in a post on X that Ford's withdrawal from DEI initiatives came just as he was investigating Ford's "woke policies."

Meanwhile, the HRC said that Ford "cowered" to Starbuck and that the company had "decades of commitment to inclusion and top ratings on the HRC Corporate Equality Index."

"The Human Rights Campaign could not be more disappointed to see the company shirking its responsibility to its employees, consumers, and shareholders," said HRC president Kelley Robinson in a statement.

Molson Coors

Beverage company Molson Coors is scrapping many of its DEI policies and initiatives, CNBC reported Wednesday.

In an internal memo obtained by BI, Molson Coors said it would remove quotas for supplier diversity. These quotas, which encourage sourcing supplies from minority or women-owned businesses, can be "complicated and influenced by factors outside" the company's control.

Additionally, the brewer stated that it will shift company training away from DEI-based programs to focus more on key business objectives.

The company said the decision to scale back, which was in the works since March, was made to ensure that executive compensation is solely based on business performance and does not include "aspirational representation goals," according to the memo.

Molson Coors will also no longer participate in the HRC Equality Index or any other third-party company rankings, reported CNBC. The company has previously received a perfect 100-point score for 19 consecutive years.

The memo added that the driving force behind the change was "the understanding that when all our people know they are welcome, they are more engaged, motivated, and committed to our company's collective success."

Survey results by the HRC published on Tuesday found that more than 75% of adults from the LGBTQ+ community unfavorably view companies that rolled back DEI initiatives.

The HRC's Gonzales said that the LGBTQ+ community holds over $1.4 trillion in spending power in the US and wants to "work for and support companies who support us."

None of the companies responded to BI's requests for comment.

Walmart

Walmart will end some of its DEI initiatives, including winding down its nonprofit Center for Racial Equity, which Walmart funded with $100 million in 2020 for five years, and discontinuing programs that assist minority-owned suppliers.

The company will also stop using the phrase DEI in company documents, stop sharing the details of its LGBTQ+ corporate policies with the Human Rights Campaign and stop allowing third-party sellers to list items marketed toward the LGBTQ+ community.

"We are willing to change alongside our associates and customers who represent all of America. We've been on a journey and know we aren't perfect," Walmart said in a statement to BI.

In a post on the social media platform X, conservative activist Robby Starbuck claimed credit for Walmart's policy change, calling it "the biggest win yet for our movement to end wokeness in corporate America."

Nissan

Nissan is rolling back some of its diversity initiatives, Starbuck announced on social media Wednesday.

In a statement provided to BI when asked about Starbuck's post, Nissan said, "Whether with employees, customers, business partners, or the communities we serve, we believe that Nissan is a company for everyone. For nearly four decades, our commitment to respect and inclusion has been rooted in our values, shaped an environment where each of our team members can contribute at work, and ultimately contributed to the success of our business."

Starbuck said when he reached out to Nissan about their "woke policies" the company was receptive. He shared a letter that he said was sent to Nissan employees on Wednesday from Jeremie Papin, the current chairman of Nissan Americas who has been tapped to become the next CFO of the company.

The letter said the company would stop participating in third-party surveys with organizations "heavily focused on political activism." Starbuck said that meant the company would not participate in the Corporate Equality Index from the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group.

The letter also said the company would align employee training with "core business objectives" that support "personal job performance and career advancement."

Nissan told BI it was already working on its communications with employees due to questions received internally but acknowledged it had also spoken with Starbuck ahead of the announcement.

• Walmart is scaling back some of its DEI efforts.
• The company was under pressure from anti-DEI activist Robby Starbuck.
• A spokesperson said some of the changes had been in the works for a long time.

Walmart is the latest American company to reverse some of its diversity, equity, and inclusion or DEI initiatives.

Robby Starbuck, an anti-DEI activist, said in an Instagram post Monday that Walmart agreed to a list of changes, including not extending its nonprofit Center for Racial Equity and eliminating the use of the terms "DEI" and "Latinx" from its official communications.

A spokesperson for the company confirmed the changes to Business Insider. They noted several changes had been in the works for a long time.

The company said in a statement it was "willing to change alongside our associates and customers who represent all of America."

"We've been on a journey and know we aren't perfect, but every decision comes from a place of wanting to foster a sense of belonging, to open doors to opportunities for all our associates, customers and suppliers and to be a Walmart for everyone," the statement said.

Walmart established the Center for Racial Equity in 2020 with $100 million in funding for five years, and the spokesperson said the company was fulfilling that commitment but not renewing it.

Some of the other changes included ending preferential treatment to suppliers based on diversity, such as those primarily owned by women, minorities, veterans, or members of the LGBTQ community; discontinuing racial equity training through the Racial Equity Institute; and no longer sharing company data with the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group.

The company will also stop selling some LGBTQ-related products sold by third parties on its website marketed to children, like some books and chest binders, the spokesperson said.

Walmart is not the first company to roll back DEI initiatives, nor is it the first to be scrutinized by Starbuck.

Ford, John Deere, Tractor Supply Company, Molson Coors, Lowe's, and Harley-Davidson are among the US companies that have backed down on DEI.

Starbuck did not respond to a request for comment from BI.

In his Instagram post, Starbuck said Walmart reached out to him after it found out he was looking into the company. He said he and Walmart had "productive conversations to find solutions."

"No retail company wants a story about them from us ahead of Black Friday," he told The Wall Street Journal.

• I'm a professional baker comparing pumpkin pies from Walmart, Kroger, Safeway, and Costco.
• I didn't love the pumpkin pie from Kroger, but Costco's was really tasty and my second choice.
• Safeway's was the best store-bought pumpkin pie because of its balanced taste and good structure.

I compared pumpkin pies from Walmart, Kroger, Safeway, and Costco.

As a professional baker, I know how to make a solid pumpkin pie at home — but sometimes grabbing one from a local grocery store is the best option. 

To find the best store-bought pumpkin pie, I put four desserts — from Costco, Safeway, Kroger, and Walmart — to the test.

There are plenty of pies on display at most grocery stores in the fall, so I didn't call ahead at any of the places I went to and just walked in and grabbed the seasonal treat.

Because pumpkin pies are typically made with a custard filling, which contains milk and eggs, the USDA recommends keeping them refrigerated. At the Costco and Safeway, I went to, the pumpkin pies were kept in a refrigerated area.

At Walmart and Kroger, they were on display at room temperature, which means they likely contain preservatives or artificial ingredients to make them shelf-stable.

With all of these factors in mind, I judged each one for flavor and texture.

I bought a 10-inch pumpkin pie from Walmart.

Walmart had a huge display of pumpkin pies sitting out at room temperature so I grabbed a 10-inch one.

The pie came in an aluminum pie pan for easy serving and was packaged in a cardboard box.

Walmart's pumpkin pie had a great texture and well-balanced flavor.

Walmart's pumpkin pie was easy to cut at room temperature so it was simple to get a clean slice that didn't fall apart. The crust was nice and light with a tasty flavor and the filling had good structure while still being smooth.

The balance of flavors was ideal, as the pie itself wasn't too sweet and the pumpkin-spice flavor wasn't overwhelming.

I found this pie on display at room temperature, which meant that Walmart's pumpkin treat likely had some added ingredients to make it shelf-stable.

I bought an 8-inch pumpkin pie from Kroger.

Kroger sells pumpkin pies under the store's Bakery Fresh Goodness brand. According to the employees working at Kroger's bakery, the pies are baked and frozen prior to arriving at the store.

I bought an 8-inch pumpkin pie, which was packaged in an aluminum pan and a plastic container.

I thought Kroger's pumpkin pie had a strange but strong flavor.

Kroger's pumpkin pie was the smallest of the four I tried, but it sliced beautifully at room temperature and looked appealing. However, I couldn't enjoy more than one bite.

In my opinion, the crust was lackluster without much flavor, and the taste of the filling was overpowering, with an odd combination of spices. I thought it had a slightly artificial taste to it as well.

Because this pie was shelf-stable, I'd guess that some of the preservative ingredients added to the mixture changed the classic pumpkin-pie taste I was looking for.

I bought an 11-inch pumpkin pie from Safeway.

I used to work at Safeway's bakery, so I already knew the chain sells pumpkin pies that come prepared and frozen and are then baked in the store.

I had the option to grab pies with or without whipped cream, both of which were kept in a refrigerated case in the bakery section. According to the label on the pie, the whipped cream is made fresh on-site from real heavy whipping cream.

I bought an 11-inch pumpkin pie, which was packaged in an aluminum pan and placed in a plastic container.

I thought Safeway's pumpkin pie was deliciously flavored.

By the appearance of Safeway's pumpkin pie, I definitely could tell it was baked fresh in the store. It had a great structure and was easy to slice at room temperature.

The crust was light and flavorful, with a hint of salt that paired well with the filling, which was absolutely delicious. The balance of the pumpkin filling with the cinnamon and other spices was spot on.

I bought a 12-inch pumpkin pie from Costco.

You'll need a Costco membership to grab one of the jumbo pumpkin pies, which can be found in a refrigerated case in the bakery section.

When I asked the employees at the bakery, they told me Costco's pumpkin pies are baked at the warehouse.

I bought the 12-inch pumpkin pie, packaged in an aluminum pan and plastic container.

Costco's pumpkin pie was soft and fluffy, with a sweeter flavor.

The pumpkin pie I got at Costco was over 3 pounds, so I knew it would certainly dish out plenty of servings. Notably, I found it difficult to get a clean slice out of the Costco pumpkin pie at room temperature, but I had an easier time when it was chilled.

The crust was thin, without much flavor or texture, and the filling was incredibly fluffy, as opposed to other richer, denser pies.

It had a sweeter taste, with notes of vanilla, but it didn't have as much pumpkin-spice flavor as the other pies did. Though it tasted good, I also wanted a bit more cinnamon.

Safeway's pumpkin pie was my favorite, but Costco's was a close second.

As a baker, a homemade pie will always be at the top of my list. Still, I think some of the store-bought versions I tried were pretty tasty.

The textures of both Costco's and Safeway's pumpkin pies were very good. However, I thought Safeway's was the best store-bought pumpkin pie. Its flavor gave it an edge over Costco's famed dessert.

Though Costco's pie was really good and a great deal, in comparison to Safeway's, it was just a bit dull.

Next time I'm in a rush and want to grab a pumpkin pie, I'll head to Safeway's bakery section.

This story was originally published on November 18, 2022, and most recently updated on November 25, 2024.