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Wal-Mart's Response To The Weakest Holiday Season Since 2009: $98 TVs
The last week has seen retailers begin to push "the promotional panic button" as holiday sales are expected to collapse to the weakest since 2009 (as we discussed here, here, and here). As Bloomberg reports, faced with wary shoppers and a shorter holiday season, retailers are piling on deals as they jockey for market share and are faced with "too much inventory, which doesn't bode well for 2014." U.S. retail sales excluding autos and gasoline grew 0.2% in October, half the month-earlier gain leaving this year likely to be the worst and most promotional shopping season since 2008 and perhaps Wal-Mart's $98 32-inch flat-screen TV is just the start of the deflationary spiral that benefits the stagnant incomes of the middle-class.
U.S. retailers are discounting earlier than ever as they brace for the weakest holiday shopping season since 2009.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) is dangling a 32-inch flat-screen TV for $98, down from $148 last year. Sears Holdings Corp. has waived layaway fees and its Kmart chain is introducing a rent-to-own program. More than a dozen retailers are opening earlier, or for the first time, on Thanksgiving Day. Among the attention-grabbing stunts: a $1 million jackpot for one of the first shoppers to visit Gap Inc. (GPS)’s Old Navy chain on Black Friday.
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For the fourth year in a row, disposable incomes in 2013 have only inched up.
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“The consumer is more deal-driven than ever,” Ken Perkins, president of researcher Retail Metrics LLC, wrote in a Nov. 14 note. “Discretionary dollars for holiday spending are limited for the large pool of lower- and moderate-income consumers due to lack of wage gains this year coupled with the increased payroll tax.”
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“We will be seeing promotions significantly above the current 30 percent off, which are the opening table stakes,” said Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners, a New Canaan, Connecticut-based consulting firm. Stores have too much inventory, which “doesn’t bode well for 2014.”
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The earlier openings are no panacea because they’ll simply pull purchases forward, rather than driving incremental sales, said Pam Goodfellow, a director at Prosper Insights & Analytics, a Worthington, Ohio-based research firm.
“Once they have spent their money, it is hard to coax them back out into the stores,” she said.
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Hopefully K-Mart, Walmart and Sears go bye bye.
Very few things to watch these days...but the Discovery Channel's movie about the failure of the Challenegr Flight was very interesting. I wasn't that aware of NASA's bullying for the budget (and need for a launch) versus the Titan Project.
The truth is, I don't want junk anymore.
Not even junk silver?
What!? No Elmo or Cabbage Patch Kids to kill other shoppers for this year!?
What is this country coming to?
We don't want as much junk but we also don't have the power to pay anymore. The Fed should have encouraged deflation instead of inflation from the beginning, as the ability to buy would normalize with the ability to work, then inflation would have organically taken hold. Now we're in a wage liquidity trap.
I wonder if AMZN will price match the $98 TV and up the anti with free delivery hence expanding their margins and profits
Looks like AMZN is already there for the most part:
http://tinyurl.com/k6nvjej
Free delivery on Sunday!
F TV, F Hollywood and all the retailers - WMT, Sears, JCP and Amazon. They all support Obama.
Challenger was stupid. It was the coldest day in recorded history in Florida. Stupidity. NASA = total retards. NASA was good when the Germans ran it.
freddie shops at wal-mart..............good job serf.........
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-11-15/holiday-spending-plans-collapse...
Freddie's partisan idiocy needs to get called out at every opportunity. Good job dick cheneys ghost.
I don't know about Walmart but JCPenney Sears and Kmart will go bye byejust as Kramer will be saying bye bye bye
In which case Walmart will be broken up due to anti-trust laws, right?
Justice Department will declare the Dollar Stores to be Walmart competitors. Therefore, AntiTrust doesn't apply.
I like Sears. Penny's and Kmart can go, though. If I could choose only one to axe, it'd be Kmart.
Sears may survive if they scale down to their core businesses of appliances and tools (maybe their auto repair is still profitable as well - don't know). I fail to see any profitable niche for JCP, and KMart seems to exists to make Wal-Mart look upscale by comparison.
If these stores had a free blowjob by a hot cashier I might consider attending the shit fest, maybe
write a contract with a realtor. she'll make that contract hum with a low ball offer
Sears simply needs to visit their 1898-1915 catalogs. Start selling boxed houses at $1500 (full house delivered, nails boards, shingles, etc...you construct) and automobiles at $375(Lincoln made them for the chain), RECOVERY!
(I'll buy 50 "cheap" silver pocket watches a $3.95 each, myself)
(50 watches...)
Nice reference to how Mr. Sears started the whole enterprise way back in the beginning. +1 for you. If only it were that easy to start a business nowadays. Here in the People's Democratic Republic of Kalifornia, the vultures are waiting in the wings to tax any new movement.
I agree, they need to bring back the old catalog from 100 years ago. They can leave out the house and car but keep the heroin and morphene... people are gonna need that more
add jcpenney
Sears Holding company will gain a small lifeline from Sears Canada with a special $5 CAD /dividend.
Looks like about $259,811,955.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/19/searscanada-results-idUSASA08FNE20131119
Pillage!
Now...if I only had a use for a teevee. Hmmmmmm? Nope...can't think of one.
Oh, come on. They make great computer monitors.
I've already got a 2560x1600 30", a 2560x1440 27", and 5 1080p monitors. I would seriously struggle to find a use for another one.
Unless it's the new 4K Asus monitor on sale for $98. Then I'd be all over it!
I bought a big chopping board the other day, about a third the size of this, for 30 bucks.
Glass boards fuck up your knives, but this would be nice and big.
There are a lot of uses:
I like the last idea, though in my household, it's generally me opening the fridge 27 times per day. And not every time to pick out the bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, I swear.
I use 32 inch dell at work and since I got it, it's like my eyes are turning bad.
And I asked for a gaming chair and those cheap bastard said "they'll think about it" BUT WE ALL KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!!!! GREEDY FUCKASS BASTARDS!!! I NEED ANOTHER RAISE!!
"FUCKASS"?
although it sounds like fuckass it is translated from ebonics as fuckers
FUCK... ASS...
WHATTHEHELLISYOURPROBLEM LADY!!!
My problem? I guess my main problem is that people keep calling me "lady" on ZH despite having clarified at least 500 times that I indeed have balls.
The avatar is disgraced, incompetent Russian spy, Anna Chapman.
Why????
She's a spy - but is more interested in getting drunk and having a good time.
She's supposed to be incognito - but was the exact opposite, extremely visibile.
She's supposed to display competence - but got easily caught.
She's supposed to be covert and hide information - but was asking people to "set up her wifi for her" in coffee shops.
Now, given how completely fucked up the state of the world is, you tell me exactly how she isn't a perfect representation of this? It's everything it's not supposed to be, and so is she.
Hey, there is at least one idiot here that thinks I am a woman..
Now, isn't that rich?
Taking it like a woman is pretty much the same thing Flackie.
No, it isn't. Women were made to take it like a woman. Now you need to apologize to every woman on earth, except for Oprah, Ellen Degeneres, Janet Napolitano and a few million others.
Most people here know you are a libtard trannie and a Obama apologist.
Points for originality---I've never heard "libtard trannie" combo'd before. Has a nice ring to it.
Nah he does not deserve points as Freddie is incapable of using insults that are above the level of a 7th grade locker room. And that he still swallows the whole right/left faux dichotomy is worth a another -1
Cool...I always like to hear the backstory to names and avatars. Perhaps one day I'll share mine. ;)
Nobody really wants to know why you chose a rodent's anus as your avatar.
Always wanted to know that, thanks ;-)
You're not allowed to have balls AND drink Sauvignon Blanc.
+1 for Boondock Saints.
He speaks several languages, and English isn't his first. Let's hear you swear in Dutch.
I speak several languages, and can swear at you in Swedish, Danish, German and English.
Skidesprællere og amatører!
Don't you just love a lady who can swear in Danish?
Egon Olsen, is that You?
Hundehoveder, hængerøve, fæhoveder, lusede amatører, slapssvanse, småfede grødbønder, feje hunde, jammer-kommoder, elendige klamphuggere...
"Fuckass" Ask obama, he knows all about it.
Consider changing your nic to Monitor Whore.
I still use my 19" Dell Ultrasharp from 2004, but I guess a kid needs his toys.
Colour me unimpressed.
Coders like pixels! Many pixels mean more debug variables on display!
Besides, these monitors are over 3 office locations.
The 4K Asus is the pimp-shit... $3875 on TigerDirect. I might ask my boss for one next year- see if it's in the budget.
I read that as Anus, and I'm straight (honest!).
I'm using a 26" HDTV as my computer right now. It's connected via HDMI so I'm getting full 1080p.
Target practice. They also make a great receptacle for Tannerite...
Yawn. This is just posturing so the sales can "beat estimates" on Cyber Monday. When are people going to see these articles for waht they are: algo fodder.
somehow this will all be spun positive post holiday in the retail reports because the price of ipads went down and 32in is now $98 where 40in used to be......thats called inflashun
Yes I admit it. $1 million would get me to visit Old Navy on Black Friday for the first time ever.
We all have a price. Mine would be slightly south of $1M but not for a dime less than $500k.
BS. if someone gave you $1000 just to go to any store on black friday, youd go. as for the deflationary spiral.....ben and janet are committed to never allowing deflation (a normal part of the economic cycle) to happen....
THEY WILL LOSE.
martin armstrong is forecasting horrendous deflation. something no one else is talking about. i believe he is saying we will wish for inflation
he's right. the global printers are on in full force and we have ~1.5% inflation? my coffee has gone from $12 to $9 in the last 2 months. why would anyone want to hold an inflation hedge (gold, silver, etc) during a deflationary spiral. at some point, the Fed wont be able to kick the can.
Is your coffee in the same size package?
Well, if you were informed about PMs, you would know that they are actually a *poor* hedge of inflation but an excellent hedge of deflation. The reason is that gold is money, and during deflation the purchasing power of money increases while the purchasing power of money substitutes (e.g. debt) decreases. Gold is also extremely sensitive to interest rates due to opportunity cost. During inflation, interest rates tend to rise, which means you are giving up alternative investments with higher yields than holding gold. During deflation, rates tend to crash, so there's less to give up by holding onto gold.
Yeah, that'd suck? No economy ever collapsed under deflation. Scarcity brings inflation back. Meanwhile you can get by/buys on current wages. In high inflation, nothing brings your purchasing power back until you're out of currency, and wages buy less through the upward spiral. By he way, tell Armsrong it's bi-flation, $98 TVs and $7 gasoline.
p.s. With the $9-12 wage, the avg American (42%) is "wishing for deflation" methinks. They just don't actually understand what it is.
yeah.... go to wmt and buy the $98 tv and steal $1000 worth of ishit... that'll work
"Buy" it with OPM: "Charge it to m EBT card" /s
@esum: "yeah.... go to wmt and buy the $98 tv and steal $1000 worth of ishit... that'll work "
"Buy" it? You must mean "buy it with OPM". As in: "Charge it to my EBT card" /s
The flatscreen is an LG. I saw the ad. Dam that seems cheap.
Nothing says the economy is booming like a TV that costs less than the monthly cable bill to watch it. /sarc.
HAHAHAHAH!! INDEED!!!
I PAY 73 EURO'S FOR ALL MY CHANNELS! THAT'S 99$
and I don't think anymore in the family ever went further than channel 400 or something like that...
NEXT UP: CARS AT THE PRICE OF A FILL UP!!!
"Nothing says the economy is booming like a TV that costs less than the monthly cable bill to watch it."
There's an idea. A trend? Sell TV/cable combos with the same business model of shave tool/blades or printer/printer ink.
That's why I don't have cable. I get all the main network channels over the air for free, and everything else on hulu. cable is dead. why pay a month's wages for crappy reality shows?
No Problemo... The TV was paid with EBT card, the Cable with Welfare dough, the rent with Sec. 8
Not that Obama gets a free ride, but all these benefits are run at the STATE level, I believe.
Now that expectations are beaten down we will be treated to a healthy dose of people being trampled, stores being torn apart, and expectations beating to the upside.
Headline: "Grandmother watches in horror as grandpa is trampled. The only reason we came out today was the news was telling us crowds were way down!"
media photo op
Nothing is worth the hell on black friday, except Kate Upton.
geiger discount
zero walmarts in (((((ERITREA)))))
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/11/18/2960371/walmart-food-drive/
A Walmart in northeast Ohio is holding a holiday canned food drive — for its own underpaid employees. “Please Donate Food Items Here, so Associates in Need Can Enjoy Thanksgiving Dinner,” a sign reads in the employee lounge of a Canton-area Walmart.
Kory Lundberg, a Walmart spokesman, says the drive is a positive thing. “This is part of the company’s culture to rally around associates and take care of them when they face extreme hardships,” he said. Indeed, Lundberg is correct that it’s commendable to make an effort to help out those who are in need, especially during the holidays.
...
Arent even doing employer matching? Geez, assholes.
The corp may be able to claim a tax write off due to the canned good donations for itself. I've suspected for decades that all "commercial donate your change or donate a dollar" collections have been used to claim a tax write off for the corporation involved. Feedback anyone?
A sign in the employee lounge? Their employees are allowed to lounge? “This is part of the company’s culture to rally around associates" ...by getting somebody besides the corporation to make it possible for their employees to eat.
Maybe they can set up a Salvation Army bell ringer in front of the store to collect money for their poverty stricken employees?
Typical rally set up. Lower the bar to the floor, then get a "beat" and rally time. Priceless
But wait, we are in "recovery"! Aren't prices supposed to be "rising"?
What you're witnessing is the evil "deflation". We need to print more, to ensure prices go up. Anything but rising prices means a collapse of society as we know it"!
I don't see anyone buying any of it any longer....there's 1 fantasy world around Wall St and Wash D.C., everyone else is hunkering down for bad times.
"I don't see anyone buying any of it any longer....there's 1 fantasy world around Wall St and Wash D.C., everyone else is hunkering down for bad times."
Anyone with half a brain cell should be able to see through the lies by now. Obamacare alone stands out like one big sore thumb on that account.
FASB was told to allow banks to lie about the value of assets. 48 million on food stamps. Yellen sees no bubbles that are right in front of her face.
Real income has been dropping. The minimum wage is 7.25. The inflation adjuste4d minimum wage of 1968 is 10.75. Anyone making between 7.25 and 10.75 an hour is also effectively making less than minimum wage. New hires at the auto makers are getting 15 an hour, not much above inflation adjusted minimum wage. Graduating college students have 20,000 or more in student debt, before they even earn a pay check in their chosen profession.
The FED gives virtually ZERO interest on savings, which leaves people with less money to spend.
Give a hug for Christmas. They cost nothing and don't need to be gift wrapped.
This http://www.walmart.com/ip/Funai-LF320FX4F-32-60Hz-720p-LED-HDTV/28505060?affillinktype=10&dest=9999999997&sourceid=14262577143976803893&veh=aff&wmlspartner=lw9MynSeamY
Jesus got some gold for Christmas.......
Yeah, he deserved it for free, China don't deserve it for cheap. Fuck the Fed!
Nice gift! I wonder if I should also invest in some frankincense and myrrh.
It's all His anyways, along with the silver. At least He shares.
Last year I waited until a few days before Christmas. We buy each other "vacations" or "a new heat pump" or "replacing the car" as gifts but you can really get incredible bargains if you go at the right time. We bought two tvs for families that had the "old" kind and this year I'm looking for some tablets for kids we sponsor in Moldova. If you are a patient saver, there are always fantastic bargains in any arena - securities, property or "things".
BULLISH!
Yellen vs Walmart
Gotta love how the 50% support the welfare queens + the 0.0001% (i.e. the 6 WM billionaire heirs).
The latter benefit a fuck of LOT more than the welfare cases per capita. What is branded as "Socialism" by the MSM and some lightweights on ZH, is actually "Reverse Socialism": Welfare for Billionaires, you dumb-asses!
/ So sorry to upset the MSM and the 'lightweights' with facts and cognitive dissonance. /s
All those TV sitting in warehouses for the last 4 years now get to come out and be sold for $98.
Outstanding!!!!
Go China go!!!
Wally World has done everything they can to completely monopolize and control every market they enter destroying competition, paid the lowest possible salaries to maximize profits (including having overtime laws rewritten), unloaded health care costs to someone else through medicaid and now the affordable care act, outsourced EVERYTHING to china to decrease costs and increase market share. Now that the middle class of working people who ran small busisnesses are gone there is no one to buy their crap. Final endgame make the Fed print money forever so they can outsource their profits. I'm going to love to watch this slow train wreck of an economy over the next few years.
Most people have too much stuff as it is. Time to de-clutter and to get rid of the junk.
Good time to cut down expenses and simplify life, it counters the Wall Street materialism.
WalMart needs help, please ask your congressman to give some more tax breaks and subsidies to WalMart. Maybe we could lower the minimum wage. How about 0$?
Then WalMart can distribute donated meals to employees and seniors and all WalMart employees could work for free...
WalMart could write off the costs of it's whole distribution network as costs needed to distribute donated meals for underpaid employees. Bullish!!!
Most people have too much stuff as it is. Time to de-clutter and to get rid of the junk.
Good time to cut down expenses and simplify life, it counters the Wall Street materialism.
How can I short storage facilities?
Don't forget also that Ghetto-Mart also extends shit credit to the sheeple now. That's all they need...EBT and Ghetto-Mart credit cards! LOL
All those credit/debt accounts will go into default, but hey, the sales will be the bottom line and I'm sure the tax payers will be stuck with the bill to bail out all those shit credit defaults too.
Fuckers...
Here you have the Walton family - richer than Jesus - forcing the poople who work to keep them that way to essentially beg for food. Sorta rings a historical bell, don't it?
I think these companies are thinking long term, like the next 3 months or so....(wow...long term now really lasts a quarter, isnt it?)....it's more for the shareholders who would like to see their stock go up when the sheeple (not the regular sheep but the investor sheeple) start buying these stocks when they start beating their own lowly estimates for black friday/cyber monday sales....
"and perhaps Wal-Mart's $98 32-inch flat-screen TV is just the start of the deflationary spiral that benefits the stagnant incomes of the middle-class."
So much for hyperinflation, huh?
"Deflation, why it can't happen here."
I saw an ad for Toys r Us and they were promoting Barbie doll items for up to 50% off, this week only.
"likely to be the worst and most promotional shopping season since 2008"
Yet there is no talk of recession.
The $98 TV sucks according to previous buyers.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/home_electronics/emerson-funai-corporatio...
A friend of mine, who owed a pizza business in the 1990's, told me then that you could make a delicious large pizza for 70 cents. He then said, if you want to stay in business, don't try to make one for 55 cents. I think that TV at Walmart is a 55 cent large pizza. You get what you pay for.