Walmart Gears Up (Literally) to Battle Best Buy

The post-Circuit City battle between Best Buy and Walmart is heating up.

Walmart is adding larger, roomier, more interactive electronics displays to its stores, looking to grab former Circuit City customers.

We reported last week that big changes are coming to electronics stores. Now we can be more specific: The changes are coming Monday.

Walmart, which had hinted at ramping up its electronics selection and battling Best Buy in the wake of Circuit City and Tweeter’s respective collapses, will equip its stores with “larger,” “more interactive” and “roomier” electronics displays beginning on Monday, according to The Wall Street Journal.

“Circuit City’s business is up for grabs right now and we expect to get our share,” Gary Severson, Walmart’s senior vice president of home entertainment, told WSJ.

Indeed, shortly after Circuit City’s demise, a consumer survey by the NPD Group indicated that 66 percent of former Circuit City customers said they’d take their business to Best Buy or Walmart. The breakdown was 55 percent for Best Buy and 11 percent for Walmart.

It didn’t work out that way, though, according to analysis by Morgan Stanley. It says that first-quarter market-share estimates show Walmart and Amazon essentially splitting much of Circuit City’s TV business, according to WSJ.

It seems that Walmart is looking for an even bigger piece of that pie. Among the changes indicated by WSJ are an expanded selection of “higher-end televisions” from Sony and Samsung, an expanded Blu-ray player and movie selection and Palm Pre smart phone. There are even online reports of Walmart offering two Blu-ray players for under $200 as soon as may, one of which is reportedly from Philips. This could lead to a lot of folks doing their Blu-ray shopping at Walmart.

They could also be renting, returning and trading in Blu-ray and DVD discs at Walmart. The retailer is testing kiosks in nearly 80 stores across the Northeast, according to CrunchGear. In addition to renting and returning, the goal is for the kiosks to allow customers to unload their unwanted discs and possibly get instant store credit.

Depending on what sort of “larger and more interactive” displays Walmart is rolling out, it could change the dynamics of the Best Buy-Walmart battle.

Best Buy, in addressing the post-Circuit City battle with Walmart, had indicated that it intends to create differentiation from the big-box retailer by playing up its product demonstration ability. Perhaps Walmart is raising the bar.

We’ll see what happens, but WSJ says the new displays begin arriving in stores Monday.

As of now, Best Buy is still the team to beat when it comes selling electronics to the masses.