Walmart starts pre-Black Friday sales Saturday
PHYSICAL: Sony Blu-ray player priced at $148 among discount offers
By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 11/4/2009
NOV. 4 | PHYSICAL: Starting Saturday, Walmart is rolling out a week-long pre-Black Friday sale, featuring such deals as a $148 Sony Blu-ray Disc player.
The $148 price for Sony's BDP-S360 Blu-ray player represents a $51 cut from current retail pricing, but might prove to be only a tease for some consumers. Walmart is widely expected to lead the way on cheap Blu-ray player deals on Black Friday and is anticipated to offer $99 models.
Walmart also will be selling the Xbox 360 Arcade console for the standard $199 price, but consumers will receive a $100 chain gift card to use toward future purchases.
Another offered deal will be a sub-$300 H-P notebook computer, featuring 3GB of memory and a 16GB harddrive.
Other highlights include Sharp HDTVs at $498 for 42-inch sets, $698 for 46-inch sets and $898 for 52-inch sets. A 46-inch Panasonic plasma will be priced at $788. And a Magnavox upconverting DVD player will be set at $29.
Walmart has set up a Walmart.com/ChristmasShop site with sale details.
The chain seems to be making early bird holiday sales a regular event. It made waves a couple of years ago with a $99 Toshiba HD DVD player deal.
Walmart wants to take maximum advantage of seasonal shopping. The chain said that 50% of consumers shop for discounts on non-gift purchases at this time in addition to seeking out presents for friends and family, according to BigResearch.
Also, the Consumer Electronics Assn. notes that four out of five adults plan to buy electronic items during the holidays.
“Each holiday season, we focus on delivering a better price on quality entertainment and electronics, and this season is no different,” said Gary Severson, senior VP of entertainment at Walmart. “We're excited about our electronics event that starts Saturday. It will be evident through the coming weeks that this year Walmart will offer more opportunities for our customers to save than ever before.”
Separately, Kmart Black Friday ads have leaked online, and DVDs are among the retailer's low-price offerings, including fairly recent movies at $3.99, including Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Hellboy II, The Pursuit of Happyness and The Devil Wears Prada. Also offered will be $8.99 DVDs featuring movies released earlier this year, including Taken, Marley & Me, 17 Again and Fast & Furious.
