Walmart’s CEO Change Comes at a Risky Time: Andrea Felsted

There’s never a good time for a highly regarded chief executive officer to step down, but Doug McMillon’s surprise decision to retire from Walmart Inc. looks particularly inopportune.

The world’s biggest retailer said on Friday that McMillon would leave the top job on Jan. 31; he’ll be succeeded by John Furner, who runs Walmart’s US business.

It’s refreshing to see a CEO quit before his sell-by date, rather than try to cling to power. And Furner, already running Walmart’s most powerful division, is a safe pair of hands.

But the transition comes as Walmart faces a raft of challenges: Many US consumers are in ...