Let’s have a holiday party with Santa at Wal-Mart on Saturday, never mind it’s just days into November.
From 1 to 4 p.m. on Nov. 4, the world’s largest retailer will kick off 20,000 themed parties in stores, offering freebies and product demos to kick off the holiday shopping season, according to a Wednesday news release. It’s one of three parties planned through December.
The world’s largest retailer plans to “Rock This Christmas,” in Supercenters on Saturday throwing a big party with Santa Claus in the toy department, letting children get their hands-on this year’s hottest toys (featured in the chain’s annual catalog) and take selfies with Jolly Old St. Nick. The chain also will give away its annual catalog with stickers so kids can make their wish lists.
Forget Black Friday. The busy holiday shopping season has begun at Wal-Mart in the never-ending retail effort to push holiday buying earlier each year to fatten bottom lines.
The National Retail Federation is predicting the 2017 holiday shopping season to be busy, saying consumers will spend an average $967 this year, up 3.4 percent from 2016, according to its annual survey. Retail sales are expected to top $682 billion, according to the NRF.
Other themed parties will be held to highlight holiday entertaining with “Parties that Rock” on Dec. 2 and “Gifts that Rock” on Dec. 16, which generally begins the second busiest wave of retail shopping after Black Friday shopping weekend, which starts Nov. 23-28.
The Bentonville-Ark.-based company also will be offering hot deals on smart HDTVs, long a mainstay and driver of strong Black Friday sales, along with Bose, Yankee Candle, Cuisinart and KitchenAid products, which are new the the company’s lineup. Sought-after Nintendo Switch and Atari Flashback 8 Gold Activision Edition gaming systems go on sale online Nov. 2-23, the compay said.
Wal-Mart also announced more than 2 million items are eligible for free two-day shipping on orders of $35 along with a pickup discount, introduced in April, which offers extra savings on purchases of online-only items shipped to stores for fee. A new options is “Pickup Today,” which allows customers to reserve items online for free, quick pick up in stores. Layaway, which kicked off Sept. 1, runs through Dec. 11.
“We launched some really powerful things for customers this year with free two-day shipping and the Pickup Discount,” said Scott Hilton, chief revenue officer, Walmart U.S. eCommerce, in the release. “These programs will be playing a big role during the holiday season.”
Hanukkah is Dec. 12-20 and Chirstmas is on a Monday this year, which will allow reatilers to get in a full shopping weekend before the holiday is celebrated.
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