Wal-Mart, Target Prepare for the Holiday Toy Wars

BA 495 Article PresentationAndy HagertCasey VannetHon Keung Lin

Retailers Announce Some Holiday Specials

• Wal-Mart– Selling more than 100 toys for $10 or less– Action Figures from Transformers for $8.99

• Target– Action Figures from Transformers for $11.99

• Kmart– Fab 15 Toy list, price ranging from $10.99 to $99.99

What Consumers Are Doing This Holiday Season

• Wal-Mart Research:– 55% of shoppers started budgeting for Christmas

toy shopping by August.– 70% of consumers are planning on starting holiday

shopping before Halloween.– 2 out of 10 will have finished Christmas toy

shopping by the time the kids dress up for Halloween.

Christmas in October

• The reason for such an early shopping season– Start shopping now – No last minute store runs– Take advantage of layaway– Can stretch their holiday dollars

Shopping in a down economy

• These Announcements happen every year• This year more important to Retailers• Need to have great prices on hot items• Consumers continue to suffer financially– Unemployment– Pay cuts– Retirement funds

Fourth Quarter Retail Sales

• Huge Quarter because it includes the Christmas shopping season.

• Economist say, Shopping Season to be Second Worst in 42 years

• 2009: Flat holiday sales • 2008: 4.5% decline last year

What Products Are Suffering The Most

• Apparel and Accessories– Decline about 2% compared with 9% last year

• High End Electronics– Decline about 5% compared with 11% last year

• Most continued decline will be at department stores

Who Will Benefit This Shopping Season

• Sales at discount department stores– Supercenters and warehouse clubs will increase

about 2.5% this year– Good news for Wal-Mart and Target– Small increase of 0.5% from

last Christmas shopping season

Questions?

Any questions or comments?

• Do you think anyone can compete with Wal-Mart this year in their toy department?

• How many of you have started thinking about Christmas shopping already?

• When is it too early to start advertising Christmas shopping?

Sources• http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/10/01/2009-10-01_walmart_.html• http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.i-heart-• http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm4.static.flickr.com/

3150/3088134036_55a9b883c7• http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://snagsta.files.wordpress.com/

2009/03/home-• http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://3.bp.blogspot.com/

_kzduLYVCwBU/SS8McNUFtnI/AAA• http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.mikepaulblog.com/

blog/media/Radio%2520Shac• http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.peelledoor.com/

reference%2520images/Nordstr• http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.tulsaworld.com/

webextra/content/2008/invest