SPRINGDALE — Wal-Mart is cutting prices on 100 more toys for the holiday season, the Bentonville-based retailer announced Monday.
While big box stores battle it out on price, Melody’s Choices, a locally owned toy and specialty gift shop, will forego holiday specials to focus on quality and uniqueness.
Minneapolis-based Target announced some of its toy specials Sept. 30, including Transformers action figures for $11.99. Wal-Mart made its first announcement about 100 toys for $10 or less on Sept. 31. That included Transformers action figures selling $1.99 less than at Target.
“We’ll offer aggressive pricing on toys this season to ensure moms can afford the gifts that help create a holiday their kids will remember,” said Laura Phillips, Wal-Mart vice president of toys.
The price rollbacks announced Monday include a Buzz Lightyear talking action figure for $29, a 17 percent cut; a Fisher Price Kawasaki Power Wheels battery-operated, child-sized vehicle at $178, a 10 percent cut; and games like Candyland, Chutes and Ladders and Yahtzee for $5, a 37 percent price cut.
Wal-Mart will reveal more of its holiday toy specials when it mails a Christmas toy guide next week, according to a news release.
The price cut announcements will lure buyers to stores early, said Deborah Weinswig, Citigroup retail analyst, in an Oct. 29 research note.
“We expect consumers to start shopping early due to more aggressive marketing, pent-up demand, updated fashion, and compelling price points. The discounters are expected to be the top shopping destination, followed by department stores and large specialty stores,” Weinswig’s note stated.
Melody’s Choices won’t be joining the toy price wars or announcing holiday specials, said owner Steve Melody.
Melody’s Choices, a gift and specialty toy store, has shops at Pinnacle Hills Promenade in western Rogers and at the Northwest Arkansas Mall in Fayetteville.
Melody’s Choices doesn’t even sell some items, such as Legos, that are toy aisle standards in big box stores, Melody said.
“We are more specialty and customer-service oriented,” he said, selling items such as a Thomas the Tank wooden railway and train cars. The train cars and engines sell for about $11, Melody said.
“Where we don’t have the buying power that Wal-Mart has, we try to have unique items,” Melody said.
However, he said he’s not sure what might happen this year with the economy and what held true in past Christmas shopping seasons might be different this year.
Retail gasoline prices will rise about 10 percent in November and unemployment is rising, said Steven C. Wieting, a Citigroup analyst, in an Oct. 26 research note.
Consumers will spend about $85 billion on gasoline in November through January and $19 billion on gas and oil heating, according to Wieting’s note.
News, Pages 2 on 11/03/2009
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