In the past few years the Christmas shopping season moved from the “Black Friday” the day after Thanksgiving, to earlier and earlier starts on Thanksgiving, then to the day before Thanksgiving.
Today Walmart leapfrogged the pack with 20,000 items on sale for the holiday season.
When Halloween ends on Friday, Walmart will be switching over its stores to greet the holiday season.
On Saturday, the retailer will offer more than 20,000 “rollbacks” or sale prices on items including groceries and popular brands such as Disney “Frozen,” Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Samsung, and Dell.
Then, on Monday, Walmart will relaunch its 24-hour holiday cyber savings event, in which customers can take advantage of free shipping on millions of items from Walmart.com. Orders must exceed $50 for free shipping. Walmart said it has expanded its online offerings to include 7 million items – one million more than last holiday season.
At the current rate of accelerated progression, the Christmas shopping season will soon move to October, then September. Christmas year round, anyone?
Commenting on the news, Janet Yellen said “Damn Walmart to hell! They should be raising prices not lowering them“.
Actually, I made that up, but it’s likely what’s going on in her mind. Indeed, it’s precisely the way Keynesian and Monetarist clowns think.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com