According to reports, the Holiday retail season has started strong. The National Retail Federation is reporting year-over-year weekend sales gains of 10.8%.
But Wal-Mart isn’t celebrating.
On Saturday, the mega-retailer drastically lowered its same-store sales growth projections for November to 0.7% … down from earlier projections of 2.0% to 4.0%. (Ouch.)
Mona Williams, VP Communications for Wal-Mart, attributed disappointing sales to, “… not seeing any one ‘must have’ gift this season, and that’s probably taking some of the frenzy out of holiday shopping.” [source: Wall Street Journal (11.29.04)]
Hmm … that’s one way to look at it.
But could it be Wal-Mart is so intertwined into the fabric of everyday shopping that when consumers shop for special occasions, they choose to shop at different, more special, and less ubiquitous retailers?
Is ubiquity partly to blame for Wal-Mart’s slow start to Holiday sales?
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