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NEW YORK — Wal-Mart is announcing a new strategy that it hopes will pull in procrastinators early by giving them a big incentive: a guarantee that they'll get the lowest price no matter when they buy during the holiday season.The Bentonville, Ark., discounter said Monday it will be matching prices on many of its products. Shoppers who buy something at a Walmart store between Nov. 1 and Dec. 25, but then find the identical product elsewhere for less, can get a gift card in the amount of the difference.The offer excludes merchandise bought on Wal-Mart's website and some other products, such as groceries.The price guarantee comes as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. tries to solidify its position as the low-price leader for the holiday 2011 season.

WOW!!! That's awesome!! Def going to help them out this year, and us for that matter.

Conspiracy theorist that I am, this could be a recipe for the end of WallyWorld as we know it. It's absolutely a desperate move by Walmart.If every major COMPETITOR carrying identical products dropped their price on one major category carried at Walmart: BestBuy on Samsung products, Barnes & Noble on music & video, Costco on Sony products, JCPenney on linens, Kmart on jeans, Staples on digital cameras, Office Depot on printers, OfficeMax on laptops, AT&T on phones, Sears on small appliances... AND the competitors HEAVILY ADVERTISE the WALMART PRICE MATCH POLICY...The competitors MIGHT lose a little money on a few items, but Walmart would potentially lose money on ALL of them and cough up tons of cash.

I read that the match was only for advertised prices at brick and mortar stores - not internet sellers. Few people will have the patience to follow all of that. I would not drive very far to shop at Walmart but there is one a little over 1 mile from me and I stop there maybe once every month or so. On a 150 wt equiv GE cfl bulb Target was 8.99; walmart 6.77. A big can of WD40 was 5.39 at Target; 4.54 at walmart. Target does have good clearance prices - I got an assortment of car cleaning materials at Target 75% off last week. Also a $150 patio umbrella for $37.50 last month.

Quote, originally posted by kostby »Conspiracy theorist that I am, this could be a recipe for the end of WallyWorld as we know it. It's absolutely a desperate move by Walmart.If every major COMPETITOR carrying identical products dropped their price on one major category carried at Walmart: BestBuy on Samsung products, Barnes & Noble on music & video, Costco on Sony products, JCPenney on linens, Kmart on jeans, Staples on digital cameras, Office Depot on printers, OfficeMax on laptops, AT&T on phones, Sears on small appliances... AND the competitors HEAVILY ADVERTISE the WALMART PRICE MATCH POLICY...The competitors MIGHT lose a little money on a few items, but Walmart would potentially lose money on ALL of them and cough up tons of cash.True, but there are 2 problems with your theory:1) you under estimate how much money Walmart has, and2) you under estimate how much it will hurt the others by people doing more of their shopping at Walmart. Not to mention, that the gift card refund is probably a Walmart gift card....therefore they win again by making you spend the difference with them anyway.

Also keep in mind that many products sold in major retailers are not generic one part number for every store , units. There are many products that are almost identical but carry a difference bar code or minor difference. Box chain stores dictate to the manufacturer what they will make and how much they will pay for it so minor cost / quality cuts are made to meet those "demands".I'd reckon that the overlap of products could be quite small. Walmart knows this and isn't stupid.Dave