Wal-Mart (WMT) cuts toy prices, kicks off holiday shopping early

with all that is going on wal-mart was a nice place to shop,they took the layaway,and now with the recall.I hope wal-mart will get there act togather.I went to K-mart last year to christmas shop,because of the layawy!!! i hope you bring it back.

We are going to begin seeing more and more pre-season sales; the price of gas, food and clothing will surely take precedence over plastic toys that are tossed aside on Dec. 26, those gaudy baskets filled with excellsior straw and two bottles of off-brand fragrance and sweaters that no man would be caught dead wearing.

Christmas at our house this year will be limited to a lot of good food on Christmas Day, a useful gift for those we buy for and lots of picture-taking.

If the reality of the ecnonmy has not yet been visible .. stick around and listen to the whining of the retailers .. in January.

Well, won't be shopping at WalMart anymore and I definetly will not be ordering anything on-line. I just ordered something on line that I couldn't get in the store. After the whole process then they tell you can have it shipped to one of their stores. You have to go into another site to get the store number and in the process my ordered was finalized. I e-mailed customer servce immediately (there was no phone number to call) about wanting the item shipped to the store not my home. That was 4 days ago. Today, I get an e-mail back saying to bad we can't help you out and if I return the shipment I still have to pay for the shipping ($60.00). So much for WalMart caring about their customers. WalMart needs to wake up to their customers needs there are too many other places I can shop. Target is a lot closer and so is my neighborhood grocery stor.

Walmart doing away with Layaway was assanine. Most people who shop at Walmart are middle to low income folks. The only way We can afford to shop for the CHRISTMAS ( Yes, I said CHRISTMAS. not Holiday) season or for big ticket items is via Layaway. Kmart was the grateful recipient of all our $$ last Christmas and will be this year, only because they DO still have layaway.

This article is misleading at best. Walmarts' same store sales and profits have not tumbled since 2006. While sales and profits have not shown the increases hoped for, they have both shown increases. Check the numbers and quit misleading folks.

bring back layaway, have more customer friendly personnel on hand for customers who need assistance with their shopping needs, and business should pick up.

Pretty much the bottom line here is this - it doesn't matter HOW far the prices drop - the majority of WM customers relied on lay-a-way for years to be able to afford to do their Xmas shopping w/o breaking their budget all at once. UNTIL WM gets this fact they will continue to lose their Xmas business to K-Mart who still has a lay-a-way program. WM needs to get their lay-a-way up and running YESTERDAY, if not year-round, at least for Christmas shopping!!

They're dropping their prices because some people are becoming hesitant about buying chinese junk, that will most likely be recalled.

I did all of my holiday shopping at wal mart. Now that wall mart has taken there layaway away. Which was not to smart. I will be shopping at K-mart. I put things on layaway so my kids wont be able to snoop and trying to get three kids gifts and being a single parent layaway was the best way I could manages the holidays.

walmart need to bring back layaway this season..they made a big mistake taking it away.. a lot of people depended on it for the holidays..not everyone has a credit or debit card....i for one will be shopping at k-mart..they still have their layaway....

you've worked hard for your money and wal-mart does not want you to spend a dime more on lead painted toys from china than you have to and if you don't buy this crap the likely event will be the toys will have to be destroyed when congress passes a law against dumping them on american markets so you can save now on toxic toys from wal-mart

I agree, Wal-Mart made a HUGE mistake taking away their lay-away program. Maybe now they can concentrate on hiring more customer friendly people who speak ENGLISH....CLEARLY!

Note: Pay attention to your reciepts.... 4 times in the past 8 months I have found pricing errors, one of those times it happened to my mother who is visually imapired.
And remember.......they have a store policy......if it doesnt scan right, they'll give you $3 off your total purchase or the item free....they dont tell you this and they dont implement it but look for the "exact" posting at the registers......it's in very small print. Trust me......I used to work there and now as a "regular" customer I make sure to remind them of it.

Amen on the lay-a-way! They are chasing customers they can't catch! People who don't need lay-a-way don't shop at Wal-mart!!

For those of you crying about layaway: open a bank account specifically for your Christmas shopping funds. (Mine is at a separate bank from the rest of my money so I won't be tempted to dip into it.) Pay into this account over the entire year. Earn a little interest on the money. Then you will have your money ready for shopping and not have to worry about layaway. Layaway is a losing proposition for the customer and the retailer. You are losing the opportunity to earn interest on your money and the retailer is losing money because their merchandise budget is tied up in items that are not considered "sold" by the accountants until they are paid in full and removed from the store.

Perfect time of year to have lead with your toys. Ugh. If Wal-Mart would stop pressuring suppliers/manufacturers to cut costs, maybe they'd be able to sell products that are actually safe.

I couldn't believe they threatened ConsumerAffairs.com with legal action about this...
http://consumerist.com/consumer/walmart/-306621.php

In response to the blogger that included the link for consumer afairs...isn't it odd that they ONLY purchased items from Wal-Mart? If this was not an attempt to once again attack Wal-Mart, then why did they not make purchases from Petsmart, or Target, or ANY other major retairer that carries pet supplies? The answer is clear, this is nothing but an attempt to besmear the Wal-Mart name, and the reputations of the men and women that work for them. Most Wal-Mart empolyees will tell you that when you attack their company, you are attacking them. You badmouthing and targeted attacks affect every Wal-Mart employee in their stock and their bonuses. But of course you don't care about that. If you did, you would support across the board testing, and not targeted attacks on one retailer. I guarantee you will find similar results to comsumer affairs' testing in almost any other retailer in the USA. So, if you really care about the levels of poisons, support across the board testing at the manufacturer and importer, not just at the retailer.

As for the layaway program, I agree that Wal-Mart made a questionable business decision. But I can see why. Consider this, you put am item in layaway for 3 months. During that time, the price drops. you find out. Now you are going to raise hell to get the item at the current price, even though you selected it at a time when the price was higher. Now you have tied up inventory for at least a month, and you want the cheaper price! Nope, I would do away with layaway too.

Guys...I totally agree with the poor lay-a-way decision. It would be beneficial to go to the Walmart website scroll down to the corporate section and lets email our views there! Then they will hear what our views are. In this forum its just a message going to waste.