Walmart announced last week its most aggressive price-matching strategy yet, but stats show toy and game inventory may be tight this holiday season.  Walmart’s new promise to its customers is that it will match prices for any “eligible product” (which exclude groceries, for example) purchased between November 1 and December 25.  The giant retailer will give a gift card for the difference between the price paid at Walmart and a cheaper local advertised price submitted by the customer.  Layaway items are also eligible. 

Walmart is hoping that this policy will not only drive store traffic, but drive it earlier, bucking the trend toward later holiday seasons as price-conscious shoppers wait for markdowns. 

Meanwhile inventory of toys at mass merchants looks like it will be down, a lot, for the holiday season this year.  Toy imports, as measured by container volume hitting U.S. ports was down 9% in September vs. the same period a year ago, continuing an eight month trend, as reported by The Journal of Commerce/PIERS.  That’s over 30,000 fewer containers of toys hitting U.S. ports in the first nine months of 2011 than arrived in the first nine months of 2010. 

With Walmart trying to get consumers to buy early, and less inventory over-all, there may be tight supply on key toys in the later weeks of the season.