Wal-Mart Extends Holiday Hours to Christmas Eve at 8:30 pm

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 13, 3:57PM EST · Published Dec 18, 6:48AM EST

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

Wal-Mart Extends Holiday Hours to Christmas Eve at 8:30 pm — © courtesy of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

National retailers will do almost anything to capture market share and accommodate customers’ needs as far into the holiday shopping period as possible. As part of this, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) will keep stores open until 8 p.m. Christmas Eve. Consumers who have not shopped earlier, or those who have last-minute gift needs, have found an ally in the world’s largest retailer. The decision also may give it some leverage against Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), where people can shop any hour on any day, 365 days a year.

The retailer’s management announced:

Walmart stores will be open until 8 p.m. and Neighborhood Markets until 6 p.m. local time on Christmas Eve to help customers put the finishing touches on their holiday meals and grab last-minute gifts.

Wal-Mart has also extended the time by which people can order online and receive their orders before Christmas:

Walmart.com offers free shipping on orders over $50, and on Friday it will eliminate the purchase minimum for free shipping. Walmart also offers free pickup in stores as soon as the same day. Customers can order online for delivery as late as Dec. 22 for rush deliveries and as late as Dec. 23 at 6 p.m. local time for store pickup. Customers can also order until Dec. 20 with standard delivery, and some customers can get free value shipping as late Dec. 20, depending on the item and customer’s location.

[recirclink id=303776]
The $50 or less waiver may cost the retailer some money, but it is a deadly battle against other retailers, and Wal-Mart appears ready to take those losses as a means to satisfy customers. People who paid for shipping earlier in the year may wonder why they did not wait until later to take advantage of the free service.

The decision is part of a trend by retailers to expand the period during which shoppers can shop over the holidays. At one end of the holiday season, people can shop as early as Thanksgiving. At the other end, people can shop within four hours of Christmas. In almost all cases, even Amazon cannot match the advantage. Having physical store locations offers at least one edge for Wal-Mart.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.