Former Walmart U.S. CEO Says 'Panic Saturday' is Brick-and-Mortar's Time to Shine
*By Samantha Errico*
Christmas is on Tuesday, which means Panic Saturday is upon us. Dec. 22 is expected to be the second-busiest shopping day at stores this year, falling short in foot traffic only to Black Friday.
Bill Simon, the former CEO of Walmart U.S., told Cheddar Friday that brick-and-mortar retailers are about to have their moment, since "the online guys are done, they can't get it there in time now."
Retailers are gearing up for a serious surge in foot traffic on Super Saturday, which is expected to bring in [$26 billion](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/20/retailers-ready-for-a-surge-of-super-saturday-shoppers.html) ー beating out Black Friday sales by $2 billion.
"This is not for the faint of heart," Simon said.
Amid the holiday shopping frenzy, Simon's curiosity lies in the "battle of toys." Of the contenders, he acknowledged Amazon for achieving major success online and Target ($TGT) for thriving in-store this season.
Back in September, Simon [predicted](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/21/walmart-will-soon-hike-prices-due-to-tariffs-ex-walmart-us-ceo.html) that Walmart ($WMT) would have to hike its prices if the trade war escalated. He said Trump's tariffs won't impact holiday sales this year, but if a trade agreement isn't reached, "I think you can start to see an impact into next year and definitely for next Christmas."
Meanwhile, Walmart ($WMT) and Amazon ($AMZN) are battling to "figure out what the next generation of shopping is."
"With Amazon investing in physical assets and Walmart investing in digital assets, I would expect the stocks at some point to start looking like each other," Simon said.
Amazon recently bought grocer Whole Foods, expanding its brick-and-mortar footprint, and Walmart acquired e-commerce platform Jet in 2016 to conquer online sales.
"It's not purely digital like Amazon or purely physical like Walmart used to be, and who figures out that intersection fastest and best I think will win," Simon said.
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