Welcome to the 87th installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions, and just a bit of everything else when it comes to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) was set to, as usual, be one of the most aggressive discounters this holiday season in order to move as much inventory as possible. Nowhere is there a better yardstick for just how aggressive one could be than by looking at the deals offered on Black Friday.

As I sat down Thanksgiving Day to a little football and a slew of Black Friday ads to study, it became pretty clear that Wal-Mart was aggressive in its pricing, but by no means the most aggressive. Since it seems consumer electronics continue to be a focus area when it comes to holiday retailing, I focused in on that product segment. So, let's delve deeper and really see who was the most aggressive, shall we?

Update November, 2008: WalletPop.com has prepared a gallery of 22 Black Friday deals. Check it out to learn about this year's deals.


With the infamous Black Friday less than a week away, details about special offers from Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) are beginning to leak out. Some Black Friday ad websites such as BFAds.net are starting to post sale items from actual ads for this Friday's massive retail sales day.

Wal-Mart's ads are generally so secretive that it can be hard to know what the chain will feature on sale, even as retailers like Target, J.C. Penneys and Kohl's have their Black Friday ads scanned and posted all over the web long before the day arrives.

With Wal-Mart recently dropping hints for a $99 laptop computer and other sale items, the chain said late last week that it will unveil "extraordinary values" on a handful of items on its online store Thanksgiving day, a day before Black Friday. Wal-Mart stated that this strategy is a first in its history.

Wal-Mart said it plans to announce more than 70 "Black Friday" values this Thanksgiving holiday in ad circulars in addition to eight additional items that will be available only at stores from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. this coming Friday. Those "additional items" are probably $14 DVD players, $69 Nintendo DS game systems and $799 plasma TVs -- though these are just my guesses.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) and Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) have started throwing punches leading up to the "official" holiday shopping season that starts on Black Friday -- the day after Thanksgiving. In quarterly results conference calls from both retailers that happened this morning, both retail behemoths came out punching and seemed smug that the public will choose them over the competition this holiday shopping season. Want to see all the nitty-gritty details? Amey Stone and myself liveblogged both results conferences this morning -- check out the Wal-Mart liveblog here and the Target liveblog here.

Both companies mentioned that toys, games and electronics were the hot holiday categories this year (as well as the most recent quarter for both), and both mentioned that they were the country's two largest discount retailers. Wal-Mart is going to use its strengths of "everyday low prices" and vowed to have "its most aggressive pricing strategy ever" to fuel year-end holiday shopping business. However, in spite of trying to move all that merchandise at rock-bottom prices, Wal-Mart warned the move could also make it miss Wall Street's expectations for fourth-quarter earnings. How's this Wal-Mart -- do you really need to lower prices that much? What's the point in holiday retail marketshare if you're going to make less profit?

I've never quite understood why some companies -- even Wal-Mart -- think that marketshare is more important that making money. Marketshare does not pay the bills, employees, satisfy shareholders (except short-sighted shareholders) or do anything else except give temporary bragging rights. I say, who cares?

Target Corp. reported a 16 percent gain in third-quarter profit, beating analyst expectations as its sales rose 11 percent. Target President Gregg Steinhafel told investors during the quarterly results conference call this morning that the retailer would compete on long-running discounts and would match Wal-Mart move-for-move -- noting that it has often matched Wal-Mart pricing before Wal-Mart advertises them in its circulars.

The game is on...