Walmart posts

Just after Walmart announced a price cut on video games, aimed at stealing shoppers away from GameStop and other stores; Toys R Us has upped the ante with month-long discounts on video games, toys and more. The new deals are part of the Toys R Us "Biggest December Sale Ever," which includes Buy-One-Get-One 50% off on all video games, with more than 800 to choose from.

The "Biggest December Sale Ever" also includes two days of bonus savings, an un-advertised in-store deal of the day, free shipping of orders over $49 and extended hours.

If you don't want to go into the store every day to find out if the deal of the days is right for you, stop by the Toys R Us Deal of the Day Web site to see today's special, get a look at tomorrow's deal and get printable coupons.

If video games are on your shopping list this year, you'll be happy to know that Walmart is cutting the prices of new video games 15-20% in an attempt to lure customers away from specialty video game store GameStop. The discounts are available starting now on the top 25 video games at Walmart and can be purchased in store or on-line. On top of the game discounts the retailer is giving a $50 gift card with the purchase of a Nintendo Wii, which brings the final cost down to just $150.

With Black Friday noting more than a tangle of receipts, empty shopping bags and tightly wrapped presents for another year; it's time to look back and see how shoppers and retailers made out on the most hyped and anticipated shopping day of the year.

Overall, the good news this year is that despite several incidents of shopper rage, no one lost their life over a Zhu Zhu Pet. Even though there were shoppers behaving badly in stores, coupon users at RetailMeNot saved almost a half million dollars on Black Friday and Amazon earned big cheers from Dealnews.com for matching almost every Black Friday sale competitors offered.

If you missed out on our liveblog of Black Friday this is a great place to see what went down on Black Friday 2009.

Scuffles:
The Consumerist combed through police blotters and local news reports to find the worst Black Friday behavior of 2009.

For law enforcement in towns with a Walmart or a Toys R Us, it was a Busy Thursday night and Friday morning as a fight broke out at Walmart in Rancho Cucamonga, California and a Walmart in Upland California had to kick out shopper and reset the store after shoppers ripped into pallets of merchandise and began shopping before the 5 a.m. kickoff.

Seasoned Black Friday shoppers know that the best way to save during this all-important shopping day is to plot out a course of action ahead of time. That means knowing what you want and where to get it -- at the lowest possible price, of course.

Such planning entails scouring the Black Friday ads and comparing prices and selection. To help ease the load, WalletPop has done some of the legwork for you. We've combed through the ads that have been released so far and dug up the best deals on everything from high-definition TVs and Blu-ray players to tools and sweaters.

The ads are in! While this info is gathered in a lot of places, we thought you might like a handy list of where you can find the actual circulars from your favorite stores. So peruse away!

Black Friday deals are already appealing, with plenty of Black Friday laptop deals and clothing deals and plenty more. But what would you say if you could get an extra; 5%, 10%, 20%, or even 35% off of your purchase in the form of cash back just by starting your holiday shopping on Bing.com?

For a limited time on Black Friday, November 27th, Bing will offer bigger cash-back rewards as part of their Bing Goldrush promotion. This will include cash-back amounts from 5 to 35 percent from retailers such as Macy's, Sears, The Gap, AT&T, Walmart, eBay, HP and many more.

The Walmart Black Friday ad leaked out to many deal collecting sites earlier this week, but until yesterday they kept it offline under threat of legal action by the mega retailer. After the OK was finally given, the entire Walmart Black Friday ad has been posted and it contains a lot of deals. Best of all, you won't have to wait outside for any of the savings since Walmart will be open all night over Thanksgiving -- although you will have to wait until 5 a.m. to make your purchases.

Walmart's biggest Black Friday deals:

News crews everywhere must be very disappointed. In an effort to avoid the stampeding crowds on Black Friday, Walmart will keep most stores open for 24 hours, beginning Thanksgiving through the end of the following day.

Sales begin at 5 a.m. on Black Friday, but lining up and rushing the doors won't be part of this year's festivities.

Walmart is busily implementing safety precautions after last year, when a store employee was trampled to death in Valley Stream, N.Y. Walletpop has been providing some fun tips on how to handle Black Friday, but not getting killed is certainly top of that list. With bargain hunting at a fevered pitch, Black Friday safety is more important than ever.

Walmart hasn't yet identified which stores will be open for those Black Friday hours, but those normally open for 24 hours will not have any changes. The retailer announced it is developing a plan with safety experts in the sports and entertainment fields to develop better ways for shoppers to get into, and navigate the store, including around promotional displays.

Maybe this Black Friday will more closely resemble a shopping event than the running of the bulls.

First books, now movies, the price wars between the biggest retailers just keep getting hotter. Walmart, Target and Amazon are all slashing pre-order pricing on some hot new releases like "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince."

Walmart said Thursday it would reduce prices for soon to be released DVDs to $10 at Walmart.com. Target and Amazon quickly followed, threw in free shipping and forced Walmart to drop its prices down to $9.98. Keep in mind, the deals are for online pre-orders of movies not yet released.

All this price cuttings seems like a great deal for consumers, but is it really? Highly competitive pricing can't be sustained for long, or extended to the entire category. Retailers simply can't sell things at a financial loss indefinitely. They do it to increase traffic, turn up the marketing machine, get a lot of press and sell other, more profitable items.

Black Friday seems to be coming early this year. Just in time for the 2009 holiday shopping season, Wal-Mart announced today that its lowering prices on more than 100 toys.

This week, Wal-Mart stores will roll back prices by as much as 20% to 30% on many kid favorites, including Star Wars light sabers and Bakugan starter packs. The price cuts are expected to last through Christmas and are also available online at Walmart.com.

This latest round of rollbacks is in addition to the retailer's previous promotion, advertising 100 toys for $10 and its direct shot at Amazon.com when it started offering 10 hot new books for $10.

Walmart has come a long way in terms of cleaning up its image, but hating the company is still something of a national pastime. At least, if you go by the comments Walletpop readers leave on most Walmart themed stories. But is our collective dislike for the Walmart empire still going strong?

Fortune's Hank Gilman gives thoughtful consideration to the issue this week. Gilman outlines the many practices that made Walmart "the most evil company on the planet" -- like hard to obtain health benefits, union busting activities, or main street decimating predatory practices.

"But that was then," Gilman writes. "Now the masses don't seem all that concerned about the biggest retailer in America stomping us all like the aliens did in Independence Day."

"We will not be beaten on price," says Eduardo Castro-Wright, vice chairman of Wal-Mart Stores and head of the U.S. division. Castro-Wright was speaking to analysts yesterday, trying to reinforce Walmart's low cost message and describing how it plans to cut prices each week leading up to Christmas.

Does this mean you can expect incredible deals at Walmart this holiday season? Yes, and no.

"You can expect some fantastic bargains at Walmart, but you can expect fantastic bargains at all sorts of other retailers, as well," says one retail insider, who prefers not to be named. "Come on, who in the retail industry didn't expect Walmart to make a lot of noise about their pricing in advance of the holiday season? This is what they do, it's really all they know how to do."

So why did roughly 1,400 news outlets pick this story up? Because the statement was media bait.

Walmart's competitors are getting much better at matching or beating prices, as evidenced by the pricing study done this summer by retail consultants McMillan/Doolittle and reported exclusively by Walletpop. In that study we compared prices on a list of identical items. Target and Walmart were about equal in price, with Target actually $1.35 cheaper than Walmart, but close enough to call it a draw.

Analysts -- the people who issue buy, sell or hold ratings on retail stocks -- know that big retailers are achieving price parity and Walmart executives were speaking to analysts, trying to reinforce their dedication to low prices.

But they were also speaking directly to you, the consumer. Low prices are what distinguishes Walmart, and it doesn't want shoppers to forget it. Strategically cutting prices on gift and seasonal items leading up to the holidays isn't new. In the past, Walmart would talk about rolling back prices as the holiday got nearer. "But now, they want more credit for being the price leader," says our source. "And they're screaming it from the roof tops."

Walmart fired a deafening shot at Amazon.com Thursday, announcing plans to sell 10 hot new books for just $10 at its Web site, Walmart.com. Yep, that's right, hardcover books from bestselling authors like Dean Koontz and James Patterson for just $10.

And here's the fun part: When Amazon said it was matching those prices, Walmart dropped its prices again, to $9 per book. It's a price war on the tallest order. (You can already preorder books).

"If there is going to be a 'Wal-Mart of the Web', it is going to be Walmart.com," said Walmart.com CEO Raul Vazquez in an interview with the Wall Street Journal (subscription required). "Our goal is to be the biggest and most visited retail Web site."

A pretty interesting combination of companies are banding together to help combat obesity, particularly among kids. The newly formed Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation claims to be launching "a national, multi-year effort designed to help reduce obesity -- especially childhood obesity -- by 2015." The focus is on education; not just healthy eating, but turning food into energy." Or, as the rest of us call it, burning calories.

Funnily enough, the Foundation is made up of some of the largest packaged food manufacturers including Campbells, Coca Cola, Nestle and Sara Lee. Hardly paragons of healthy eating. Although I suppose every little bit helps, isn't this a little like the tobacco companies launching a campaign for responsible smoking?

Walmart isn't part of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation, but it's now selling Nutrisystem. Walmart began carrying the Nutrisystem 14-Day Starter Program this week in stores and online. This might not seem like news, but it marks the first time Nutrisystem is sold through the retail channel.

You'll be able to purchase the starter kit as a gift card in Walmart's pharmacy department for $148. It's hardly a philanthropic effort, but with something like a third of all Americans visiting a Walmart each week, it might go a ways toward reducing our collective weight.

Although fans of PeopleofWalmart.com might have fewer photos to oggle.