Ron Schenone

Wal-Mart Secret In Store Specials

Posted by on Nov 2, 2007 | 5 Comments

Wal-Mart has a new sales gimmick called Secret In Store Specials in which select stores have sales on some popular items that consumers may be interested in for the coming holiday season. Last evening there was a Wal-Mart ad on TV which mentioned this secret sale of sorts, in which they advertised a Toshiba HD-DVD player for about $99. This morning I took a look at Wal-Marts website which sure enough had the in store sale and the Toshiba HD-DVD advertised as well and a Acer laptop for $348.

The sale started Friday AM at 8:00am, and not because of the specials, I had to pickup a few things at Wally-World. So I stopped in at the electronics isles and sure enough, there was the Acer and also the Toshiba. There was also a Sanyo 50″ Plasma TV for $998, another secret special as well.

I’m not telling Wal-Mart how to run their business since they seem to be doing very well. But this type of advertising seemed kind of odd to me. Secret Ads? Why? One would expect that if you advertised these specials people would flock into the store. By advertising I mean not only TV ads, but ads in the local rag as well. Most of us are familiar with the Sunday paper which is now about 10% news and 90% ads as the holiday approaches. A Wal-Mart ad with these specials would do well.
Comments welcome.

You can access the Secret In Store Special ads on the Wal-Mart site here.

You can even sign up for email alerts to the secret stuff as well.

[tags]wal mart, specials, in store, secret,[/tags]

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/computrout/ computrout

    I went into Wal-mart today and the HD DVD player was not there :( . Oh well, at least I saved $99 from buying a player that is not standardized yet.

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

    Thanks for the info. It is going to be hit and miss. They even say so on their web site. :-(

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/digged/ Matt

    I bought my player today and described why I liked it in my blog
    http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/digged/2007/11/02/did-you-get-your-99-hd-dvd-player-today

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/chabootie/ chabootie

    Is it possible that they do not have large quanities or even any stock in some of the stores, therefore extensive advertising would only cause problems?

  • http://google Linda V.

    My friend and I went to the secret shopping at Wal Mart on Saturday. It was good. They took your name as you got there. The only thing that I thought was not correct is they held some of the things that were on sale for employees that were not working that day. Hey if I can get up and go (yes i work all week) then I really feel if they wanted one they should have been there just like the rest of us.