Walmart Inc. will shut down Store No. 8, the big-box retailer’s startup incubator and innovation hub, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. It’s the latest move by a retailer to trim expenses and protect profits as shoppers continue to grapple with higher prices.
Chief Financial Officer John Rainey told employees in a memo that much of what Store No. 8 did had already been incorporated into the company’s operations as a whole, the Journal said.
“We’ve graduated capabilities from this operating approach that are now fully embedded in our organization,” Rainey said in the memo, according to the Journal.
“The responsibility to shape the future of retail is now shared by all segments,” he continued.
Walmart launched Store No. 8 in 2017 in an effort to experiment with new ideas, including augmented reality, artificial intelligence and new ways of delivering products, and to stay nimble in a retail landscape increasingly defined by online shopping. The Journal said that Scott Eckert, who led Store No. 8, was leaving the company.
Walmart did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Shares were up fractionally after hours, after finishing 0.5% lower during the day.
Walmart and other retailers have signaled that they are rethinking what technology to invest in and what stores to keep open. Those decisions would follow years of online-sales adoption, pandemic-related disruptions to shopping and a jump in prices for basics that began in 2022 and led people to shy away from buying things like laptops and clothing.
The Wall Street Journal, which first reported that news, said Macy’s intended to bring more automation to its supply chain and invest “in areas that impact consumers,” like visual displays in stores and efforts to smooth out the online-shopping experience.
Walmart topped third-quarter estimates and raised fiscal-year guidance. But investors were expecting more from the world’s largest retailer, sending the stock lower in premarket trading.
Retail executives over the past year have talked a lot about “shrink” — or the losses they take due to theft, fraud or employee error — amid a flood of headlines about sometimes violent organized thefts at stores. But results from a retail-industry survey released Tuesday found the metric rose only modestly last year.
The report from the National Retail Federation, a retail industry group, found that the average shrink rate in 2022 crept higher to 1.6% from 1.4% in the prior year, when calculated as a share of sales. The figure from 2022 is in line with those seen in 2020 and 2019.
Still, the losses amounted to billions of dollars — $112.1 billion, up from $93.9 billion in 2021 — according to the report. And the report said that retailers were increasingly concerned about the violence of those crimes.
“Far beyond the financial impact of these crimes, the violence and concerns over safety continue to be the priority for all retailers, regardless of size or category,” David Johnston, the NRF’s vice president for asset protection and retail operations, said in a statement.
The NRF, working with the Loss Prevention Research Council — a research group founded by some of the nation’s biggest retailers — surveyed people in the industry who work in loss-prevention and asset protection. The report contained responses or information from 177 retail brands. The survey was distributed in May, June and July.
“In this case, we cannot continue operating these stores because theft and organized retail crime are threatening the safety of our team and guests, and contributing to unsustainable business performance,” Target said in a statement.
The chain joins other retailers sounding the alarm about retail theft and closing stores, amid what executives have described as a spike in organized retail theft, or theft with the intent of reselling the goods. However, executives’ takes on earnings calls have differed slightly, and retailers are contending with other issues — like the fallout from inflation — that have hit financials.
The fight over theft has played out, perhaps predictably, on partisan lines, with some blaming what they say are lax crime policies in large cities. But other analysts point to changes in the flow of foot traffic through population centers since the pandemic, and say the data is often too squishy and subjective to make any hard calls about the state of crime — and whether it’s rising or falling, particularly at retailers — in a particular area.
More than two-thirds of the retailers surveyed by the NRF “said they were seeing even more violence and aggression” from organized retail theft compared with a year ago. Twenty-eight percent reported being “forced” to close a specific store location, the report said, while 45% said they cut operating hours, and 30% said they reduced or changed an in-store product selection as a result of retail crime.
“The types of products shoplifters are targeting may not be based solely on price point,” the National Retail Federation said.
“Products can range from high-price, high-fashion items to everyday products that have a fast resale capability,” the group said. “While ORC groups have traditionally targeted specific items or types of goods, that list has expanded to new categories like outerwear, batteries, energy drinks, designer footwear and kitchen accessories.”
The thing that will make companies lower prices is if consumers stop complaining about paying more for the things they need and want, and actually start refusing to buy them.
As the U.S. corporate earnings-reporting season progresses, with earnings from major retailers Walmart Inc. WMT, +0.59%,
Target Corp. TGT, +0.10%
and Home Depot Inc. HD, +0.52%
on tap next week, investors can get a ground-floor view of how consumer demand may have been hurt, or not, by higher prices, and what the companies plan to do, or not do, about it.
This dynamic of how consumers adjust their spending habits when prices change is referred to by economists as the price elasticity of demand.
“ For companies to cut prices, ‘you have to have the consumer go on strike, and they’re not there yet.’”
— Jamie Cox, Harris Financial Group
Those who trust companies will choose to ratchet down prices on their own, or at least not raise them because the rise in input costs has been slowing, haven’t been listening to what the many companies have told analysts on their post-earnings-report conference calls.
Kraft Heinz Co. KHC, +0.47%
acknowledged after its second-quarter report that its relatively higher prices have hurt demand, but not by enough for the food and condiments company to consider cutting prices.
Colgate-Palmolive Co. CL, +0.81%
said it will continue to raise prices, even as inflation slows and selling volume declines, as the consumer-products company continues to be laser focused on boosting margins and profits.
And while PepsiCo Inc. PEP, +0.16%
was worried that elasticities would increase, given how its lower-income customers were being particularly pressured by inflation, the beverage and snack giant reported strong results as it witnessed “better elasticities” in most of the markets in which it operated.
“Obviously, there is still carryover pricing, and I don’t think we’ll do anything different than our normal cycles on pricing in the balance of the year,” PepsiCo Chief Financial Officer Hugh Johnston told analysts, according to an AlphaSense transcript.
Basically, as MarketWatch has reported, so-called greedflation is alive and well.
Jamie Cox, managing partner for Harris Financial Group, said as long as the job market stays strong, as it is now, corporate greed will continue to pay off.
“If something is more expensive, and you have a job, you’ll complain about it, but you won’t substitute it for something cheaper,” Cox said. For companies to cut prices, “you have to have the consumer go on strike, and they’re not there yet,” Cox added.
“ ‘At some point, people are going to say, “All right — enough.” ’ ”
— Paul Nolte, Murphy & Sylvest Wealth Management
The reason elasticity is so important in the current environment is that, as long as consumers continue to pay the higher prices companies are charging, inflation will remain stubbornly high, making it, in turn, more likely that the Federal Reserve will continue to raise interest rates or, at the very least, not lower them.
But the longer interest rates stay high enough to crimp economic growth, the more likely the stock market will reverse lower as recession fears rise.
“At some point, people are going to say, ‘All right — enough,’ ” said Paul Nolte, senior wealth manager and market strategist at Murphy & Sylvest Wealth Management. “But we just haven’t seen that yet.”
What is elasticity?
Economists use the term “price elasticity of demand” to refer to the way in which consumers adjust their spending habits when prices change.
“Elasticity tries to measure how much more producers will want to produce if prices rise, and how much more consumers will want to buy if prices fall,” explained Bill Adams, chief economist at Comerica.
Elasticity often depends on the type of product a company sells.
For example, consumer-discretionary-goods companies that sell products and services that people want will often experience greater price elasticity than consumer-staples companies that sell things that people need, such as groceries and prescription drugs.
But even for needs, consumers often still have a choice, as less expensive generic, or private-label, alternatives may be available.
Andre Schulten, chief financial officer of consumer-staples maker Procter & Gamble Co. PG, +0.58%,
which recently beat earnings expectations as it continued to raise prices, telling analysts that, while there was “some trading into private label,” the overall market share of private-label products was unchanged for the year.
As Harris Financial’s Cox said, consumers may be complaining about higher prices, but they aren’t yet desperate enough to stop buying.
The Federal Reserve’s latest Beige Book economic survey stated that business contacts in some districts had observed a “reluctance” to raise prices as consumers appeared to have grown more sensitive to prices, but other districts reported “solid demand” allowed companies to maintain prices and profitability.
That’s likely why companies and analysts have become less concerned about price elasticity. Based on a FactSet analysis, mentions of the word “elasticity” in press releases and conference calls of S&P 500 companies SPX
increased as inflation and interest rates started surging in early 2022 through the end of the year.
Mentions of the word elasticity in earnings press releases and conference-call transcripts of S&P 500 companies.
FactSet
As the chart shows, “elasticity” popped up in more than 55% of earnings releases and conference calls in mid-2022, but with the second-quarter 2023 earnings-reporting season more than half over, mentions had dropped to about 20%.
Perhaps that will pick up, as retailers, especially those catering to lower-income customers — recall the PepsiCo comment — assess the demand impact of continued price increases.
Meanwhile, the branded-foods company Conagra Brands Inc. CAG, +0.71%,
whose wide-ranging food brands including Birds Eye, Duncan Hines, Hunt’s, Orville Redenbacher’s and Slim Jim, were starting to see the emergence of a different dynamic.
Chief Executive Sean Connolly said consumers were shifting behavior in some categories as prices remained high. Rather than trade down to lower-priced alternatives, he noticed some consumers buying fewer items overall, “more of a hunkering down than a trading down.”
That’s exactly the kind of consumer behavior that is needed, if companies are to stop feeding into the greedflation phenomenon and to start pulling back on prices.
Target Corp.’s stock is up 0.1% Friday after snapping its longest losing streak in 23 years amid an anti-LGBTQ+ backlash against the retail giant.
The stock ended Thursday’s session up 0.2% to snap the losing streak. Target TGT, +1.57%
shares had ended Wednesday’s session down 2.2%, marking their ninth consecutive decline, and the stock’s longest losing streak since an 11-day stretch that ended Feb. 24, 2000, according to Dow Jones data. Wednesday also marked the stock’s lowest close since Aug. 11, 2020.
Target Corp.’s stock, which is on its longest losing streak in 23 years, was downgraded to neutral from overweight Thursday by JPMorgan, which cited “too many concerns rising” in relation to the retail giant.
The stock ended Wednesday’s session down 2.2%, marking its ninth straight decline and the stock’s longest losing streak since an 11-day stretch that ended Feb. 24, 2000, according to Dow Jones data. Wednesday also marked the stock’s lowest close since Aug. 11, 2020.
Shares of Target Corp. seesawed to a gain early Wednesday, after the discount retailer reported fiscal first-quarter results that beat expectations and reiterated its full-year outlook, but provided a downbeat second-quarter profit view due to “softening sales trends.”
Net income for the quarter to April 29 fell to $950 million, or $2.05 a share, from $1.01 billion, or $2.16 a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted earnings per share fell to $2.05 from $2.19 but beat the FactSet consensus of $1.77.
Total revenue increased 0.6% to $25.32 billion, above the FactSet consensus of $25.26 billion, while same-store sales grew 0.7% to exceed the FactSet consensus for a 0.2% rise, as traffic rose 0.9%.
The stock rose 0.9% in premarket trading, but has swung from a loss of as much as 3.6% to a gain of as much as 2.4% after the results were reported.
“We came into the year clear-eyed about the challenges consumers are facing, and we were determined to build on the trust we’ve established with our guests,” said Chief Executive Officer Brian Cornell. “It’s required agility and the ability to flex across our multi-category portfolio as we lean into value and the product categories our guests need most right now.”
Cost of sales declined 0.4% to $18.39 billion, as gross margin improved to 27.4% from 26.7%.
The value of inventory fell 6.5% from the sequential fourth quarter, and dropped 16.4% from a year ago, to $12.62 billion as of April 29.
“[W]e now expect shrink will reduce this year’s profitability by more than $500 million compared with last year,” said CEO Cornell. “While there are many potential sources of inventory shrink, theft and organized retail crime are increasingly important drivers of the issue.
Looking ahead, Target said it was planning for a wide range of sales outcomes, given “softening sales trends” in the first quarter.
For the second quarter, the company expects same-store sales to be down in the low-single digit percentage range, compared with the FactSet consensus for a 0.1% increase. And adjusted EPS for the current quarter is expected to be $1.30 to $1.70, below expectations of $1.95.
For the full year, Target reiterated its guidance for same-store sales growth of 0.7% and for adjusted EPS of $7.75 to $8.75. That compares with the FactSet consensus for same-store sales growth of 0.6% and for adjusted EPS of $8.36.
The stock has gained 5.3% year to date through Tuesday, while the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR exchange-traded fund XLY, -0.41%
has run up 14.1% and the S&P 500 index SPX, -0.64%
has advanced 7.0%.
Target Corp. engages in the operation and ownership of general merchandise stores. It offers food assortments including perishables, dry grocery, dairy, and frozen items. The company was founded by George Draper Dayton in 1902 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, MN.
It’s the end of the road for Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., a company that was once a shining star of U.S. retail.
The troubled home-goods retailer BBBY filed for chapter 11 on Sunday, after spending several months teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. The company said it aims to achieve an orderly wind down of its operations, while also seeking to find an interested buyer for some or all of its assets. It has $240 million of debtor-in-possession financing to provide the liquidity needed to support its operations through the process….
Just five trading sessions accounted for more than 95% of S&P 500 index losses in 2022, according to an analysis by Datatrek co-founder Nicholas Colas in a note published Wednesday, as stocks headed for their worst year since 2008.
He described them in the note as the “five days that killed the year”: Two were caused by disappointing inflation data, while the others were triggered by weak corporate earnings and commentary from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
September 13 (-4.3%)
On the worst day for stocks since 2020, the release of the August U.S. consumer price index report sent traders into a panic when the data showed annual headline and core inflation running hotter than expected.
The headline number came in at 8.3% for the 12 months through August, while core inflation — which strips out volatile food and energy prices — accelerated at 6.3%.
Economists and analysts were particularly rattled by the monthly core inflation number, which came in at 0.6%, double the expected rate of 0.3%, stoking concerns about stubbornly high housing costs as energy prices began to decline after earlier being the biggest driver of this year’s inflation.
May 18th (-4.0%).
Retail giant Target Corp. TGT, +0.04%
missed first quarter earnings expectations by a wide margin, elevating worries about the U.S. consumer’s ability to cope with inflation into a full-blown panic one day after Walmart Inc. WMT, -1.64%
highlighted similar concerns.
Adding to the pressure on the market, during an event hosted by the Wall Street Journal Powell acknowledged that “there could be some pain involved” as the FOMC raised interest rates.
June 13 (-3.9%)
This day’s punishing selloff was also triggered by the release of CPI data, as the numbers for the month of May came in higher than expectations. The S&P 500 finished the session in bear-market territory for the first time in 2022, down 21.8% from the record highs reached in early January.
April 29 (-3.6%)
The market’s decline on this day was also triggered by a corporate earnings disappointment. However, this time, the focus was on e-commerce, and the ripple effects sent many of the megacap technology stocks reeling.
Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, -1.16%
— which like both Target and Walmart is a member of the consumer discretionary sector of the S&P 500 — missed earnings expectations for the first quarter while reducing its guidance. The stock ended the day down 14%, its biggest single-session decline since 2006. Apple Inc. AAPL, -2.94%,
Microsoft Corp. MSFT, -0.68%
and Google owner Alphabet Inc. GOOGL, -1.48%
were also down sharply.
May 5 (-3.6%)
Markets tumbled one day after Powell assured investors during a post-meeting press conference that the Fed wasn’t considering interest-rate hikes of greater than 50 basis points. Of course, this statement didn’t age well, as the central bank went on to hike interest rates by 75 basis points at the following four consecutive meetings.
According to Colas, investors can glean some helpful insights about the root causes of this year’s market misery from these five sessions.
To wit, investors had clearly realized by the spring that stubbornly high inflation would force the Fed to raise its benchmark interest rate more aggressively than it was letting on. Also, inflated expectations for corporate earnings helped contribute to the pain as U.S. consumer spending waned.
U.S. stocks sold off far more often than they traded higher this year, a deviation from the historic pattern since World War II whereby stocks typically climb far more often than they fall. Through Tuesday’s session, the index fell during 141 trading days (including Tuesday), while finishing higher during 107 up days.
The S&P 500 was on track to finish 2022 down more than 20% as of midday on Wednesday as all three of the main indexes were trading in the red, with the S&P 500 SPX, -1.03%,
Nasdaq Composite COMP, -1.20%
and Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.88%
adding to their losses with just two more trading days left in the year.
Triangle Securities Wealth Management lifted its stake in Target Co. (NYSE:TGT – Get Rating) by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 7,069 shares of the retailer’s stock after purchasing an additional 134 shares during the period. Triangle Securities Wealth Management’s holdings in Target were worth $1,049,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Blume Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Target during the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. Operose Advisors LLC raised its stake in Target by 55.8% during the 1st quarter. Operose Advisors LLC now owns 187 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the period. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Target by 75.6% during the second quarter. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 209 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Target by 83.3% in the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 220 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, EdgeRock Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Target during the 3rd quarter valued at $34,000. 78.86% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Target Price Performance
Target stock opened at $143.15 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.14. The stock has a market cap of $65.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.01. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $158.48 and a two-hundred day moving average of $157.27. Target Co. has a 1 year low of $137.16 and a 1 year high of $254.87.
Target (NYSE:TGT – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 16th. The retailer reported $1.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.15 by ($0.61). The firm had revenue of $26.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $26.40 billion. Target had a net margin of 3.17% and a return on equity of 30.51%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.03 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Target Co. will post 5.54 earnings per share for the current year.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
A number of brokerages have issued reports on TGT. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered Target from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $183.00 to $144.00 in a research note on Thursday, November 17th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on Target in a research note on Wednesday, October 12th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on shares of Target from $205.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 17th. BMO Capital Markets downgraded shares of Target from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $190.00 to $165.00 in a report on Thursday, November 17th. Finally, Gordon Haskett cut shares of Target from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $132.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, December 21st. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $182.64.
Target Corporation operates as a general merchandise retailer in the United States. The company offers food assortments, including perishables, dry grocery, dairy, and frozen items; apparel, accessories, home décor products, electronics, toys, seasonal offerings, food, and other merchandise; and beauty and household essentials.
See Also
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U.S. stocks closed lower on Wednesday for the second time in three days after a choppy session as a rally inspired by softening inflation data appeared to take a breather. Market strategists cited concerns about Target Corp.’s TGT, -13.14%
earnings for helping to weigh on equity prices Wednesday. The S&P 500 SPX, -0.83%
finished down 32.87 points, or 0.8%, to 3,958.86. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.12%
was off 39.22 points, or 0.1%, to 33,553.70. The Nasdaq Composite COMP, -1.54%
closed off 174.75 points, or 1.5%, to 11,183.66.
Shares of Target Corp. TGT, +3.95%
tumbled 14.0% in premarket trading Wednesday, after the discount broadline retailer reported fiscal third-quarter profit that was well below expectations even as revenue beat, and provided a downbeat same-store sales outlook for the current quarter. Net income for the quarter to Oct. 29 fell to $712 million, or $1.54 a share, from $1.49 billion, or 3.04 a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted earnings per share of $1.54 missed the FactSet consensus of $2.16. “In the latter weeks of the quarter, sales and profit trends softened meaningfully, with guests’ shopping behavior increasingly impacted by inflation, rising interest rates and economic uncertainty,” said Chief Executive Brian Cornell. “This resulted in a third quarter profit performance well below our expectations.” Total revenue grew 3.4% to $26.52 billion, above the FactSet consensus of $26.41 billion, while same-store sales growth of 2.7% beat expectations for a 2.2% rise. Cost of sales increased more than total sales, rising 8.1% to $19.68 billion, as gross margin contracted to 25.8% from 29.0%. Inventory was up 14.4% from a year ago at $17.12 billion as of Oct. 31, compared with the 36.1% year-over-year increase as of July 30. For the fourth quarter, the company expects same-store sales to be down in the low-single digit percentage range, compared with the FactSet consensus for a 3.1% rise. Target’s stock has slipped 0.7% over the past three months through Tuesday, while the SPDR Consumer Discretionary Select Sector ETF XLY, +1.37%
has dropped 16.3% and the S&P 500 SPX, +0.87%
has declined 7.3%.
We may be paying a price for our pumpkin-spice cravings.
A new study from the MagnifyMoney.com website has found that retailers routinely charge more for pumpkin-spice items than for the standard versions of those same products — in fact, a lot more. On average, the pumpkin-spice “tax,” as MagnifyMoney.com dubs it, is 14.1%.
That’s a significant increase from 2020, which was the last time MagnifyMoney looked at the pumpkin-spice pricing differential. At that time, the “tax” was 8.8%.
“I think companies are finding it’s a great way to capitalize on a seasonal trend,” said Ismat Mangla, executive editor of MagnifyMoney.com. “As long as consumers are willing to pay for it, they can take advantage of it.” MagnifyMoney.com, which is owned by LendingTree, offers information on how to manage and grow your money.
Craig Agranoff, a Florida-based marketing expert, put it this way: “It’s Retailing 101.”
Some retailers really push the pumpkin-spice upcharge to the upper limits, the 2022 study noted. A case in point: Trader Joe’s, the supermarket chain beloved for its low prices, charges 161.1% more for its Pumpkin Spiced Teeny Tiny Pretzels than for its Honey Wheat Pretzel Sticks. The retailer also charges 49.9% more for its Pumpkin Spice Hummus than for its Mediterranean Style Hummus.
And what about Starbucks SBUX, -1.60%,
the coffee chain that made pumpkin spice a household favorite? The study found that it levies an 18.3% “tax” on its ever-popular Pumpkin Spice Latte (or PSL), with a standard 16-ounce latte running $5.45 and the PSL costing $6.45.
Trader Joe’s and Starbucks didn’t respond to a MarketWatch request for comment.
Agranoff said consumers are probably willing to pay more for pumpkin-spice products without complaining because the products are not considered essentials. By contrast, consumers tend to be very sensitive when it comes to price increases on items they need to buy on a regular basis, such as milk or gasoline.
Still, not every retailer is asking consumers to shell out more for pumpkin-spice products. Target TGT, -1.28%
charged less for several items versus the standard ones, the MagnifyMoney.com study found. One example: A bag of Pepperidge Farm Milano pumpkin-spice cookies was 14.3% cheaper than the traditional Milano cookies at Target.
Regardless of whether the price is higher or lower, Mangla of MagnifyMoney.com isn’t one to buy these products. “Personally, I’m over pumpkin spice,” she said.
will spur debate about whether the consolidation will raise food prices, or lower them.
The Biden administration’s antitrust regulators are scrutinizing mergers more closely than did predecessors, and an old argument against combinations is that they lead to price-gouging.
Amazon AMZN, -0.76%
is debuting a new holiday shopping event this week called “Amazon Prime Early Access Sale” where shoppers can get exclusive access to hundreds of thousands of deals ahead of the holidays.
The new sale is essentially another Amazon Prime Day event, where subscribers can get certain deals for a 48-hour period, just with a different name.
As millions of shoppers are impacted by record-high inflation in the U.S., some data still suggest, consumers are still set to spend more than last year this holiday season.
According to data insights from Adobe Inc. ADBE, -1.00%, online-only holiday spending (Nov. 1 to Dec. 31) is expected to grow 2.5% in 2022, representing the smallest increase since Adobe began tracking this data in 2015. In 2021, holiday spending was 8.6% higher than the year prior, despite, at the time, the rate of U.S. inflation at a 30-year high.
Here’s what you need to know about Amazon’s Early Access Sale:
When is Amazon Prime’s Early Access Sale?
Amazon’s savings event is two days long, running from Tuesday, Oct. 11 through Wednesday, Oct. 12.
What time does Amazon Prime’s Early Access Sale start?
The Early Access Sale begins at midnight PT (3 a.m. ET) on Tuesday, Oct. 11, and runs for 48 hours, through the end of the day on Wednesday, Oct. 12.
Which countries participate in Amazon Prime’s Early Access Sale?
Fifteen countries in total are participating in the deals. Those countries include: Austria, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the U.K., and the U.S., according to Amazon.
How does Amazon Prime’s Early Access Sale work?
Items for sale can be viewed on Amazon.com or on Amazon’s app. Anybody can locate which items are listed on sale through Amazon’s platform, but the deals are only available to Prime subscribers, similar to how Amazon’s flagship annual savings event Prime Day is structured.
Is Amazon Prime’s Early Access Sale only for Prime members?
Yes. Only Prime members can participate in the deals. Non-Prime members can make purchases on Amazon, but won’t get the type of savings that members get — non members also don’t get access to typically cheaper, and sometimes free shipping costs.
Additionally, people who sign up for a 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime can participate in the Early Access Sale.
How much does Amazon Prime cost?
An Amazon Prime subscription is $14.99 a month, or $139 for a full year. The subscription includes access to free delivery on millions of items, Prime Video, Prime Gaming, Amazon Music, and Amazon Photos, and broadcasts of “Thursday Night Football.”
Earlier in 2022, Amazon increased its Prime subscription price from $119 to $139.
Amazon increased its Prime subscription price from $119 to $139 in 2022.
What are the best Amazon Prime Early Access deals this year?
According to a statement from Amazon prior to the event beginning, some of the top deals will be on items including Fire TVs, Alexa enabled devices, and products from LEGO, Adidas ADS, -1.14%
and Ashley Furniture.
There will also be a Top 100 list that features the best deals on the e-commerce platform. The list will highlight the most popular products being purchased, Amazon says, and will launch in unison with the event’s start on Tuesday.
Are retailers like Target and Walmart starting holiday deals too?
Target Inc. TGT, +0.51%
announced customers will enjoy “earlier than ever” holiday shopping deals this year, including seven weeks of Black Friday deals, marking another instance when retailers are ditching the traditional shopping calendar of the holidays.
Last month, Walmart WMT, +0.58%
announced a “holiday guarantee” that extends the return window for purchased items, beginning Oct. 1, and running through Jan. 31.
