The $998 50-inch plasma TVs, $348 laptops and $98 HD DVD players the company offered recently had all been purchased at one San Diego Wal-Mart by 8:15 a.m., a sales associate said. Another Wal-Mart across town was also out of its sale stock early that morning.
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Jami Arms declined to release sales data but said stores had varying amounts of inventory. At the first store, the sales associate said, there were three plasma TVs available and around 25 low-cost laptops.
While few shoppers got their hands on the almost-too-good-to-be-true deals, analysts said so-called door-buster sales such as Wal-Mart's will be much in vogue this holiday season as retailers look for ways to lure reluctant consumers to their stores. By offering a limited number of items for a limited amount, retailers such as Wal-Mart, Toys "R" Us and J.C. Penney are hoping to create buzz and drive much-needed traffic to stores, said Ken Perkins, president of RetailMetrics, a research company in Swampscott, Mass.
"It's all about getting people into the stores," he said.
That's no easy feat this time of year, as the weeks between Halloween and Thanksgiving are typically slow.
Wal-Mart has said it plans more door-buster sales; J.C. Penney had a similar sale where shoppers can buy anything from sweaters to drapes at discounts.
George Whalin, president of Retail Management Consultants, a retail firm in Carlsbad, Calif., said these high-profile sales are not about the specific deals, but are intended instead to create an image with consumers.
"They all want the perception that they have the lowest prices," he said.
This season, low prices will be particularly important as the lagging economy is affecting consumers and retailers alike, Perkins said.
Toys "R" Us, which had its own door-buster sale, said the discounts are part of its long-standing pricing strategy.
"The two-day sale ... is not a knee-jerk reaction to anything our competitors are doing or in response to banter about the economic climate," said Kathleen Waugh, a spokeswoman for Toys "R" Us.
Even though the door-buster sales are occurring earlier this year, some analysts say the real deals will come later as nervous retailers slash prices to move inventory closer to Christmas, especially on cold-weather apparel that has been sitting on shelves, in part because of the mild fall weather.
But Ted Taft, managing director of Meridian Consulting, a Connecticut firm that tracks the retail industry, said consumers can't wait until the last minute on all items, saying there will be shortages on electronics and toys.
"Stores are going to run out of stock - no doubt about it," he said. "It's hard to be aggressive on price and still have inventory."
