Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) has been improving its consumer electronics sections in stores for some time now as a way to better compete with national retailer Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY). Best Buy has, from what I have seen, been way more aggressive in laptop PC pricing for at least a year. While Wal-Mart's laptop PC selection consists of models behind plastic that customers can't touch or use, Best Buy has its entire laptop PC lineup powered on and usable for every customer. Additionally, Wal-Mart's staid laptop PC pricing has not been able to touch Best Buy's pricing almost across the board. Well, no more.
Wal-Mart's average $500+ laptop PC pricing will dive down to $298 as it tries its hand at deep discounts to capture back-to-school computer shoppers. Not only that, the retailer reportedly will up its laptop PC selection by 40% at the same time. Wal-Mart and Hewlett-Packard Corp. (NYSE: HPQ) partnered to bring the new $298 laptop to market.
This is in the netbook PC price range, which is great for shoppers. Meanwhile, Best Buy already has a completely-outfitted Acer laptop for $299, and has had it for just under a week. Is Wal-Mart really making headway here? Nope -- it's just finally trying to compete with Best Buy on the lowest-end laptop PC price while also trying to match its breadth of selection on laptops.
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