Target Steals 'Lowest-Price' Title from Walmart

By Barbara Thau
DailyFinance.com

Lance Armstrong isn't the only one ceding a crown this week.

Walmart (WMT), which has long claimed bragging rights as the nation's lowest-priced retailer, has unwittingly relinquished that title to Target (TGT) -- for a month, at least.

According to a Bloomberg study, the cheap-chic discounter has offered shoppers lower prices than Walmart this month, the first time since October, and by the widest pricing margin since the study launched two years ago.
The study looked at the gap in average prices between the two chains across 150 comparable items in stores within five miles of each other.

Findings showed that prices at Target were 0.46 percentage points less expensive than at Wal-Mart. Translation: For every $100, Target was 46 cents cheaper this month.

The study also found that Target, the second-largest discounter in the U.S., largely won the price game against Walmart in the supermarket aisle.

The news comes as Target angles for a bigger slice of consumers' food budgets, adding grocery departments to more than 1,000 locations in the past few years.

Meanwhile, Walmart has been on a mission to restore its low-price image.

In March, the retailer outlined a $2 billion plan to "reinvest" in low prices, particularly in food and consumables, to drive more traffic to its nearly 4,000 U.S. stores.