Toy sellers playing with prices to kick-start holiday sales
The No. 1 toy trend this year isn’t a toy.
Topping this year’s hot list is lower prices.
Three months before Christmas, and the deals are already day-after-Thanksgiving caliber.
Retailers are pulling out deeper discounts earlier this year as they face declining holiday spending forecasts. It’s an especially critical time for toy sellers, which generate 40 percent of annual sales in the last three months of the year.
This week, Toys R Us has Lego sets for 30 percent off. (Older parents will remember when the brand was rarely marked down.) It’s giving $15 and $25 gift cards with iPod Touch and iPod Nano purchases and a Snow White Royal Baking Set valued at $12.99 with any $25 Disney princess purchase.
Last week, it knocked $5 to $10 off the price of the season’s hot Toy Story Andy’s Room Collection and marked down such classic board games as Candy Land, Operation and Battleship to as low as $4.99.
Wal-Mart expanded its $10 toy selection to 100 items this year, started it Sept. 30 and said the pricing is good through Christmas.
Wal-Mart and Toys R Us have also negotiated more exclusives this year, trying to make their stores destinations.
Target on Wednesday said it cut the price on popular toys this week by 50 percent or more – discounts that will carry “through the holidays,” including a $5 Barbie and $14.99 for a G.I. Joe Tough Troopers action figure with sounds and lights.
