I missed this last year, but in 2008, Wal-Mart cut prices on 10 “popular” toys, selling them for $10 each. This year, they’re selling 100 toys for $10 each. This includes things from board games to Transformers to Barbies to Play-Doh.
It’s not a terrible idea. I do think Christmas is overcommercialized, but it’s nice when kids do get at least one gift from Santa (or their families, however they choose to do things).
The article mentions that Wal-Mart worked with manufacturers to get toys to this price – which makes me wonder about the quality. Board games, okay, I can see cutting prices there, but for some of these other toys that will be involved in rough play (epic Transformers battle!) might be less likely to hold up. I could be wrong, of course.
I also wonder if perhaps these are loss leaders for Wal-Mart – products priced so that there is little to no profit on the item itself, but it brings people into the store, which means they will buy other things that are marked up a bit more.
It will be interesting to see what other toys are in this list of 100 products and how the sales fare. I would also be interested to know the quality of the items.
One interesting stat – 20% of Wal-Mart shoppers have finished their Christmas shopping by Halloween. No wonder there’s so much Christmas creep! I’m a fan of Christmas shopping all year, meaning that you pick up items for people on your gift list when you come across them, rather than waiting and rushing to buy things. But I can’t imagine being done by the beginning of November. It would be easier to truly enjoy the season though.
Megan is a 40-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:
In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance. It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information. It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck. While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.
While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.
Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.
So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan. I needed to budget. I needed to know what I was spending my money on. I needed to prepare for the future.
I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way. I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.
I am still a last minute shopper, sadly, but you are right on about those Walmart sales. I feel like thats really the point of any sale. Except Black Friday when practically the whole store is on sale…