Black Friday: Walmart leads with low price holiday goods

Walmart built its reputation on Every Day Low Prices (EDLP), and while it may have veered from that path in the past couple years by emphasizing rollbacks on select items, it has returned to form in the past few months. Seems playing around with pricing isn't Walmart's strongest suit, rollbacks have been reduced and pricing is returning to the chain's EDLP strategy of old.

And that's the message to shoppers in advance of Black Friday and the holiday shopping season. Walmart will have the lowest prices around, or so says Bill Simon, president and CEO of Walmart's U.S. stores. According to Retailing Today, Simon told analysts that the focus this holiday will be on the core customer -- price sensitive shoppers -- that need the company's low price value proposition now more than ever. But did Walmart alienate shoppers with its conflicting price message and merchandise reductions over the past two years?

It's a message still clouded in confusion. Walmart has already embarked on a price war in the critical Black Friday toy category with the announcement of $5, $10 and $15 toys it deems hot for the holidays.

Walmart saw sales decline in the critical fourth quarter last year, results that should be easy to beat, if shoppers return to stores.