Walmart made the decision to switch to cheap mostly made Chinese goods, what 30 years ago? Sam’s concept was dropped.
Someone HAD to know in their company the switch would lose manufacturing jobs and eventually cause a drop on buying power from average Americans. That loss of stores as the country lost high buying power would be inevitable.
IMHO I think they said “hell with it…we will have made our fortunes then so who cares?”.
My employer sells to Walmart. All American manufactured products. Walmart requires us to prove our label claims. No other customer does that.