Target, Sam’s Club’s summer promotions are all about holding prices as tariff threat looms
As retailers and brands seek to fight the uncertainty that comes alongside the always-shifting threat of tariffs, major retailers are telling customers they’re not raising prices on some items as part of their summer or back-to-school promotions.
On June 17, Sam’s Club said that, beginning that day through July 22, it would lock in prices on more than 1,000 summer items such as pool floats and fruit trays. A few days later, on June 23, Target said it would maintain 2024 prices on key back-to-school items, including a list of 20 school supplies that add up to less than $20 total, including crayons, colored pencils, notebooks, folders and a “top-selling” $5 backpack — alongside other student and teacher discounts.
This comes as some smaller brands like Nuts.com and activewear manufacturer Set Active have reassured customers in cases where prices would not be going up due to tariffs. The summer promotions are also similar to when, in 2022, brands including Bark and Old Navy announced to customers that they wouldn’t be raising prices on some items or at all, despite rapidly rising inflation at that time.
Representatives at both Sam’s Club and Target declined to make executives available for interviews for this story, pointing back to their respective press releases on the promotions.
The practice has been seen in Sam’s Club parent company Walmart’s playbook, as well. Since 2022, Walmart has been offering “inflation-free” holiday meals, either matching or, in the last two years, beating the price from the year before. Last year, from Oct. 17 through Christmas Eve, the meal was $7 per person with 29 items such as turkey, Hawaiian rolls, corn and pecan pie.
“In general, there is a lot of price sensitivity, so being honest about that makes sense and drives urgency, as well,” Brad Jashinsky, director analyst at Gartner, told Modern Retail. “It really taps into what consumers are worried about and thinking about.”
Jashinsky said he found it interesting how clearly retailers are stressing value, by not saying products are a certain percentage off but instead saying customers can get everything they need for a certain amount — all the school products they need for $20 at Target or all the food they need for $7 per person at Walmart.
Ultimately, it’s still unclear how exactly tariffs will play out for the rest of the year and how they will impact customers’ wallets.
Currently, the Trump administration has implemented a 30% tariff on most Chinese imports and 25% on imports from Mexico and Canada not compliant with the USMCA trade agreement, as well as 50% on steel and aluminum imports. A 25% tariff on Japan and South Korea is set to begin Aug. 1.
“The tariff conversation is starting to increase again,” Jashinsky said. “Although it seemed like, for a lot of consumers, maybe their worries were starting to lessen, we’re now seeing that cycle happen again, in terms of the press talking about inflation for certain items. So it will be interesting to see as we get past Prime Days and these summer holidays.”
Paula Rosenblum, co-founder and managing partner of RSR Research, said retailers saying they’re holding prices is just another marketing hook to take advantage of the uncertainty to hopefully improve sales.
“It’s a good hook to consumers who don’t know what the prices of anything are going to be in two months,” she said. “Retailers have always tried different things to goose sales.”