Wal-Mart is trying to get all the business this holiday season

Raking leaves, pumpkin pie, scarves; all of these remind me of Fall. One other thing that reminds me of Fall is the consumer driven Black Friday holiday. Wal-Mart is actually one of my favorite places to go on Black Friday, not because I want a big ticket item, but because it is so fun to people-watch at Wal-Mart (the store I shop at is in a small town).

This year, Wal-Mart wants to completely corner the retail market; on everything form big screen televisions to turkey.

Turkeys are going on sale across the country at Wal-Mart for 40 cents per pound beginning November 4th. According to a survey by the American Farm Bureau Federation, that is 1/3 of last year’s turkey price. Along with turkey, Wal-Mart will be reducing prices on canned vegetables, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and red potatoes. You may also be able to find deals on rolls and pumpkin cake. The goal is to have a $20 meal that can serve eight people.

Another thing that the retailer is doing is having smaller sales during some weekends until Christmas where you can get big discounts on big ticket items. This weekend, you can buy a HP laptop for $300 and a 42″ Sharp LCD TV for $500. While the laptop is not exactly the best on the market, you can get a 15.6″ laptop for the same price that many people are paying for netbooks, and I promise that the HP will out perform any of the netbooks that Wal-Mart has.

Wal-Mart, although it is a huge company, has had its stock slip 11% this year. Even after it announced the price drops earlier, the stock still slid a bit. What really matters is after the holiday season when all the retailers will tally up how they did.

There aren’t too many Black Friday ads out as of today, not a lot that have leaked anyway. The rumors are going around, however, that this year will have decent sales to get people to come in and spend money. The retail stores really need for people to spend a lot of money this year (even though this will likely be another bad Christmas season).