Walmart is kicking off its second Black Friday event on Wednesday, highlighted by a 55-inch 4K TV for $148.
Walmart is expected to unveil a wireless phone event for Nov. 14. The sale will include deals on iPhones and Samsung phones.
The retail giant’s traditional Black Friday event will start on Nov. 25 online and in stores on Nov. 27. Those deals have not been revealed.
Some of the deals starting on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET include:
- TCL 55-inch Class 4K UHD Smart TV for $148.
- Onn. 50-inch Class 4k UHD Roku Smart TV for $128.
- Shark IQ Robot vacuum RV1000 for $199 ($100 off).
- Lenovo IdeaPad 3 (4GB RAM, 128GB storage) for a low $149.
- HP 14-inch 2-in-1 Touch Teal Chromebook for $179 ($120 off).
- HP Pavilion 15.6-inch Horizon Blue Laptop for $379 ($160 off).
As shoppers avoid physical stores and focus more on online shopping, foot traffic at retail stores is expected to be down 22% to 25% during the six key weeks of the holiday season compared to the same year-ago period, according to a forecast from ShopperTrak.
And ShopperTrak expects the 10 busiest days this year will account for 34.2% of all holiday traffic, compared to 46.5% in 2019. As a result, the typical holiday traffic peaks will flatten, with more days having importance throughout the season, according to Brian Field, a senior director of the retail consulting practice at ShopperTrak, part of Sensormatic Solutions. Field said he still expects Black Friday will be the busiest day of the year.
The challenge for stores will be to get shoppers to buy earlier.
“If the deal is right, customers are willing to shop earlier,” Scott McCall, chief merchandising officer at Walmart, told The Associated Press.
McCall noted that Walmart was forced to rethink Black Friday when the pandemic was declared. He noted that many of the holiday items destined for the stores were rerouted to the e-commerce fulfillment centers.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.