Nov. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, cut prices on turkeys and plans reductions on flat-panel televisions to win holiday sales from rivals.

U.S. stores are selling whole, 12-pound (5.4-kilogram) turkeys for 40 cents a pound starting today, Walmart said in a statement. That’s a third of last Thanksgiving’s average price in a survey by the American Farm Bureau Federation in Washington.

Starting Nov. 7, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer will sell a Hewlett-Packard Co. notebook computer for $298; a 42-inch (107-centimeters) Sharp Corp. flat-panel TV for $498, down $270 from its regular price, and a 46-inch model, which usually sells for $1,158, for $698, according to Walmart.

The company will cut prices weekly as consumers, pinched by job losses, delay holiday purchases, John Fleming, chief merchandising officer, told analysts Oct. 21. Groceries accounted for 49 percent of U.S. stores sales last year, followed by electronics and other entertainment items, which generated 13 percent of revenue, according to an annual securities filing.

“This is the proven and effective method they deploy using major categories to drive loyalty and to take marginal sales away from the competition,” Richard Hastings, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based consumer strategist for Global Hunter Securities LLC, said in an e-mail. The strategy may force others to lower prices, he said.

A $20 Meal for Eight

Forty-three percent of respondents in a poll conducted for the National Retail Federation said discounts will be most important in deciding where to shop, the Washington-based trade group said last month. In September, unemployment rose in 23 states and nationwide advanced to 9.8 percent, the Labor Department said.

Walmart said it reduced prices on seven items, including turkey, canned vegetables, cranberry sauce, stuffing, a five- pound bag of red potatoes, dinner rolls and a pumpkin roll cake, for a $20 dinner serving eight people. Thanksgiving, officially the fourth Thursday of November, is on November 26 this year.

Walmart advanced 48 cents to $50.38 at 4:01 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock has declined 10 percent this year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Burritt in Greensboro, North Carolina, at cburritt@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 4, 2009 16:09 EST