Walmart's New Push for Outdoor Sales

Retailers often say that the shopping season before Christmas is their Super Bowl. But for big home improvement chains like Home Depot and Lowe's, spring is the busiest time.

For those home improvement retailers, there may be a new Grinch in town: Walmart.

Walmart plans to make a pointed, aggressive play for outdoor and garden business this spring for the first time, offering ' Black Friday-like prices' on more than 60 items, including a Kingsford Charcoal Grill for $88, bags of mulch for $1.97 each and a seven-piece patio furniture set for $298 - a discount of $100.

'After this tough of a winter, we're really excited to bring spring to our customers with great brands and great prices,' said Michelle Gloeckler, senior vice president of home at Walmart.

'And we're going to do this in true Walmart fashion,' she said. 'Think of just pallets and pallets of mulch and grills, patio sets and big yellow bags of Miracle-Gro. We're ready to bring it out in a big way.'

The sale will begin Friday - spring officially begins Thursday afternoon - and last for about a week.

Major home improvement retailers have already been preparing for an increase in customers buying lawn and outdoor equipment as they spend more time outdoors. Home Depot announced in February that it would hire 80,000 employees in anticipation of spring.

For the last several years Home Depot has tried to generate extra traffic and buzz with 'Spring Black Friday' events, with price reductions and events, like workshops, to lure customers to its stores. Early this week, bold letters on Lowe's website proclaimed, 'Spring Black Friday is calling.'

But after an exceptionally rough winter, this spring's selling season is likely to get an additional boost because a long parade of storms has probably left many homes and gardens in extra need of repairs.

Walmart is eager to take advantage of that need. Planning for its sale began last summer, Ms. Gloeckler said, and some adjustments were made when it became clear how difficult the winter would be.

So although the Black Friday slogan is shared, Walmart says it will approach home improvement promotions in a different way from its competitors. Ms. Gloeckler said that while Walmart expanded its assortment of products somewhat, offering sheds for the first time and a wider array of riding lawn mowers, it has not started stocking things like lumber or roofing tiles that might be necessary for big home improvement projects.

Another way the company's approach differs from those of Lowe's and Home Depot is that Walmart will offer a simultaneous nine-day event nationwide, beginning the first full day of spring.

At Lowe's and Home Depot, the sales and spring events are scattered, because while Atlanta might have springlike weather, Minnesota is still cold. Lowe's first Spring Black Friday sales will start this weekend in the Deep South.

Although the timing of Walmart's promotion does not vary by region, Ms. Gloeckler said that the assortment of products does, with different fertilizers, flowers and insecticides aimed at particular parts of the country.

'So if you do get that one last snow,' she said, 'the pansies will make it through that.'

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