WAL-MART, the world’s largest retailer, has cut its sales forecast, in the run-up to Christmas, by more than half after suffering a fall in the number of shoppers passing through its doors during America’s Thanksgiving holiday in the past week.

Wal-Mart, which owns Britain’s Asda supermarkets, said that it expects an increase of 0.7 per cent during November at US stores that have been open at least one year, down from a forecast of between 2 and 4 per cent a week ago.

The company, based in Arkansas, said that “sales fell below plan the past week, hitting the results of our November forecast”. The forecast covers the four weeks to November 26 and includes Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving Day when retailers’ balance sheets move out of the red and into the black.

“Keep in mind that this past week was the largest week of the reporting period,” the company added in a statement.

A survey by the leading US trade group, the National Retail Federation, estimated that up to 130 million consumers — almost half America’s population of 291 million — would go shopping over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Richard Hastings, a retail analyst at Bernard Sands, said that the location of many Wal-Mart stores could have played a part in the poor performance.

“In the instances where Wal-Mart supercentres have entered dense markets, competition is fierce from a multitude of strong retailers,” he said.

Wal-Mart said that top-selling items on Black Friday were digital cameras, video games, learning toys and combinations of TVs and DVDs.

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