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Walmart Predicts A Record Holiday Season Despite Lagging Electronics Sales
Walmart Predicts A Record Holiday Season Despite Lagging Electronics Sales
Hayley PetersonOct 15, 2013, 21:00 IST
APWalmart expects its strongest holiday season on record with tablets representing four out the top five items in layaway so far this year. "I'm excited about the holiday season and I expect this to be the best year ever," Walmart U.S. Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Duncan Mac Naughton said Tuesday at the company's annual meeting with investors and analysts.Walmart launched its holiday layaway program, which allows customers to pay off gifts incrementally over time, in early September. Tablets for sale at Walmart include the iPad, iPad Mini, Samsung Galaxy and Google Nexus. Mac Naughton's prediction for a robust holiday season comes as same-store sales at Walmart U.S. fell 0.3% in the second quarter.The underperformance was partially driven by a staggering 7.5% decline in Walmart's bottom 10% of stores.Lagging demand for electronics, such as big screen televisions, has been a drag on sales, Walmart U.S. CEO Bill Simon said at the investors' meeting Tuesday. Meat, produce, home and apparel continue to be Walmart's best performing categories. That has led to a problem among Walmart's discount stores, which don't offer the grocery options of its supercenters, Simon said."We've got an issue with our discount stores they continue to underperform," he said.
