Walmart Lights Up Christmas

I was shopping in the Wareham Walmart over the weekend when I saw something that I don't remember noticing in the past several years. All of the Walmart staff were wearing "Light Up Christmas" baseball caps cheerfully adorned with red and white pom-poms plopped on the top. The words "Light Up Christmas" were printed across the front. Walmart's apparent slogan for the holiday season could also be found on a number of signs throughout the store.

I found the store's shift toward Christmas interesting for a number of different reasons. In recent years, many retail stores have avoided using the word "Christmas" in their marketing campaigns, instead opting for what some consider to be a more inclusive "Happy Holidays."

Forget political correctness for a moment. Toss aside religion. Let's face it, Walmart made this decision for one reason and one reason only: money. I'm confident that this decision wasn't made without a massive amount of research. Therefore, the only logical conclusion would be that "Christmas" continues to kinda test well and is still a pretty popular holiday.

The show's digital guru, Abby, also suggested that given the amount of online shopping that will be done this season, Walmart may be trying to seize upon the keyword "Christmas" on their website for search engine reasons.

One thing is for sure, Walmart's pivot back to Christmas wasn't done without marketing in mind.