Will Wal-Mart or Target Win the Holiday Season?
NEW YORK (
) --
Wal-Mart
(WMT) - Get Report
and
Target
(TGT) - Get Report
will be going head-to-head this holiday season to win consumers' dollars. But which big-box discounter will have the merriest Christmas?
Of course, everyone will be competing on price, attempting to lure shoppers with the best deals and door-buster promotions. And neither Wal-Mart nor Target is waiting until Black Friday to get things started.
Wal-Mart announced this week that starting on Saturday and lasting for two days (or as long as supplies last), it will slash prices on select flat-panel televisions. Vizio's 26-inch LED HDTV will be cut to $198 from $298, the 32-inch will go to $298 from $348 and the 55-inch will be reduced to $898 from $1,098.
Wal-Mart will also be offering other electronic deals throughout November courtesy of its "The Amazing Walmart Electronics Event," which will include a Compaq computer for $288 and $50 gift card for the Sony PlayStation 3 Move bundle.
In turn, Target will be running a four-day sale beginning Nov. 21, that will include discounts as much as 50% on more than 170 gift items like toys, electronics and entertainment. It is also cutting prices on the iPod touch and offering two-for-one video games.
Wal-Mart and Target will especially be looking to capture market share in the toys and electronics categories. Earlier this week Wal-Mart introduced its first-ever 52-page toy catalog, and further cut prices on toys it predicts will be big seller this holiday season, while Target said in October that it planned to slash prices on more than 1,000 toys.
Both retailers recently started selling
Apple's
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iPad over the past several weeks, and are also banking on sales of
Amazon's
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Kindle.
Target also announced this week that it will begin stocking the iPhone in about 850 stores starting Sunday.
For Wal-Mart, the holiday season is especially important, as it looks to reverse five quarter of U.S. sales declines. The discount giant has been struggling to woo shoppers back to stores after it made a decision to get rid of some merchandise from shelves it deemed "unprofitable" through its Project Impact initiative.
Wal-Mart is currently in the process of restocking some of these items and growing categories like apparel and home goods, two divisions it shrunk significantly amid the recession. The retailer will go back to providing apparel basics and offer more plus sizes
While Target's sales have been steadily increasing since the beginning of the year, over the past several months comparable sales numbers have disappointed. Mainly, it is seeing softness in its apparel business, which has been partially offset by growth at its P-Fresh grocery segment.
But what really could put Target over the edge of Wal-Mart is its new discount program, which offers 5% most products when shoppers use a Target card.
Given this, which discounter, Wal-Mart or Target, will outperform this holiday season?
--Written by Jeanine Poggi in New York.
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