Santa says Merry Christmas at Wal-Mart

BENTONVILLE, Ark. Wal-Mart is looking to drive increased traffic to its stores beginning this weekend when Santa Claus make the first of six scheduled appearances at each of the retailer’s more than 3,000 stores nationwide.

Plans call for Santa to appear at stores between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. this Saturday and Sunday and also on Dec. 1-2 and Dec. 8-9. During that time, Wal-Mart expects to provide 1.6 million children with a free 5 inch by 7 inch photo of them with Santa. In addition, Wal-Mart plans to sell additional photos and using the stores digital photo capabilities apply images to different gift items such as posters, ornaments and Christmas cards.

Aside the from the traffic and sales generating potential associated with the first ever appearance of Santa Claus in its stores, the move is the latest example of Wal-Mart decision to openly embrace Christmas. In years past, efforts at political correctness saw the company move to the center with references to the holiday season. That is far from the case this year as Wal-Mart has created seasonal departments that are branded as Christmas Shops and now Santa is coming to Wal-Mart too.

Wal-Mart divisional merchandise manager for photo processing, Lori Kumar, said the Santa weekends on these program demonstrates Wal-Mart’s commitment to help people save money so they can live better, or in this case have a merrier Christmas.

“Offering free photos with Santa is one more way parents can save at Wal-Mart this Christmas,” Kumar said. “And with most mall kiosk Santa photos costing $10 or more, we're expecting to save American families at least $5 million over the next three weekends on photo keepsakes.”