The battle for your bucks this holiday season is heating up. First it was an ever-earlier holiday shopping season, marked by some merchants announcing crack-of-dawn openings on Thanksgiving. Now, Wal-Mart -- the largest retailer in the country -- has told managers at its roughly 5,000 stores across the U.S. that they can match prices with Amazon and other online retailers.
Greg Foran, the head of Wal-Mart's U.S. business, said Thursday that the directive was meant to formalize a practice already in place in many stores. "About half of the stores were doing it anyway," Foran said on a call with media after the company reported its quarterly results. Ultimately, the winner of the battle could be consumers as the retailers offer discounts to bring in customers.
IN-DEPTH
- Wal-Mart Is Making Black Friday a Five-Day Marathon
- Retailers Holiday Plans Worry Worker Advocates
- Shipping Wars: Retailers Push Order Deadlines Later
-- Reuters and NBC News staff