Online Holiday Shopping Series ALERT!

Published On November 16, 2014 | By Tom Huskerson | Now You Know, Online Holiday Shopping

You may not know it but holiday spending by American consumers account for as much as half of yearly sales. So every holiday season retailers gear up to fight tooth and nail for your money.

Well its not even Thanksgiving yet and it seems Walmart, the big gun in the holiday shopping war, has opened with a significant salvo. The world’s largest retailer has announced that it will match online prices in the store.

According to Reuters, “Wal-Mart Stores Inc has informed managers of its roughly 5,000 stores across the United States that they can match prices with Amazon.com Inc and other online retailers, the head of the company’s U.S. business said on Thursday”.

So here is the real deal; Wal-Mart will match online prices as long as they have the item in store. There is a good chance they will and an equal chance they won’t. Your neighborhood Wal-Mart has a limited amount of storage space. They don’t compare to online stores like Amazon.com who’s warehouses are probably six times the size of your average Wal-Mart and they have a lot of them.

So the real question becomes; how can long can Walmart wage this price matching war? Let’s not forget we’re talking about the worlds largest retailer. Online retailers like Amazon.com can afford to offer lower prices because they have less overhead. Walmart has to foot the bill for brick-and-mortar stores, pay all those employees and don’t forget advertising.

It should be interesting to see if Wal-Mart fights this war beyond the holidays. My money is that they won’t even try it. Its Christmas and they want that foot traffic in the stores. They know its almost impossible for someone to walk into the store and not buy something. Its called impulse buying. So if you go to Wal-Mart looking for a digital camera you saw online and they don’t have it you’re still likely to leave with a new fake Christmas tree or lights or a something. That’s the real magic behind this deal.

But if you are shopping online and see a great deal on a tablet computer haul ass to Wal-Mart for a price match. You really can’t lose.

Now You Know

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About The Author

Tom Huskerson Bio Born in Richmond Virginia Tom Huskerson is a military veteran who settled in California after his discharge. Tom attended Santa Barbara City College where he began his writing career as a campus reporter. He worked as an intern news reporter for the Santa Barbara News-Press writing feature stories before moving on to San Francisco. At San Francisco State University Tom studied broadcast communications and began to focus on the Internet. He completed his graduate thesis on Internet advertising. Tom was the first student to ever focus on the Internet as a graduate student at San Francisco State University. After graduation he went to work for Zona Research in California’s Silicone Valley. As a research associate Tom supported senior analyst writing on the latest developments in the Internet industry. During the dot com boom Tom worked for several web businesses as a market researcher and analyst. As a writer and researcher Tom has authored various technical works including a training program for Charles Schwab security. Other projects included professional presentations on workplace violence and hiring security contractors. Tom has also written both fiction and non-fiction works and blogging for a travel website. He has published two books of short stories and completed two novels. Tom is the owner of Scribe of Life Literature and EbonyCandle.com. Tom is not the chief editor for the OnTechStreet. com. A news and information blog that focuses on tech news for African-Americans. The blog is the result of his desire to inform the African American community of the dangers and benefits of the cyber age. In his blog Tom reports on information security, new and analysis, scams and hoaxes, legal happenings and various topics that arise from the age of information. Tom believes that technology is a necessary tool for black people and they should know what is happening. Tom writes believing that techno speak is for the professional and that valuable information can be communicated using plain language. As a result he has embraced the motto, Less Tech, More Knowledge.

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