If it’s October (oops, make that late September), it must be time for Wal-Mart to fire its opening salvo in the holiday toy sales war. Sure enough, the retailing giant has announced that it is expanding its recession-based 2008 $10 toy list tenfold, inflating the number of sawbuck sales items from 10 to more than 100. Last October with the
This year, armed with new survey-based research about the buying habits of its customers, the world’s largest retailer, which has managed to increase sales during the current recession, has greatly expanded its $10 toy promotion. Among the items included, which are discounted from 20% to 50%, are the venerable family board games Monopoly, Connect 4, Battleship, Trouble, and Jenga, several new Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Deluxe Action Figures, Barbie Cut and Style Rapunzel, a Play-Doh Burger Builder Set, Hot Wheels Trick Track, Tonka Light and Sound Dump and Fire Trucks, and My Little Pony So Soft Newborn.
Wal-Mart has also pledged that its stores will meet the advertised price of any local stores that sell any of the items on the list for under $10. The Wal-Mart sale ends on December 25th. Wal-Mart’s research indicates that 70% of its customers begin their holiday shopping before Thanksgiving and 20% have completed their purchases of Christmas items by Turkey Day, which may explain why they moved up the announcement of this program from October 8th last year to September 30th.
Of course some retail outlets such as Sears with its “Christmas Lane” and Toys ‘r Us with its “Christmas in July” promotion began their attempts to lure holiday shoppers even earlier than Wal-Mart (see “Christmas Season Kicks Off”).
It's also not clear how the expansion of Walmart's $10 toy list fits in with the mega-retailers overall toy strategy, which involved a cutback in the space allotted to toys last May (see “Wal-Mart Cutting Toy Space”).
