Wal-Mart Jumps to Offer Popular Book, Sales Rocket Past Expectations

Known for identifying and promoting products of extraordinary cultural popularity including exclusives by teen icons Mary Kate and Ashley Olson and romance cover model Fabio, Wal-Mart has added top selling "My Fractured Life" by entertainer Rikki Lee Travolta. Within days, Wal-Mart reports demand has exceeded initial stock.

New York, NY (PRWEB) February 6, 2004 --As of February 8, retail giant Wal-Mart reports having temporarily depleted its stock of the surprise popular novel "My Fractured Life" by entertainer Rikki Lee Travolta.

The announcement comes within just days of the retailer's addition of the title to the value-added purchases it offers its customers.

Founder Sam Walton established Wal-Mart in 1962 on the mission of offering high value products at low prices to the general public through careful selection of products.

"My Fractured Life" is offered by Wal-Mart to its customers at a value-added retail price of $11.18; almost $5.00 less than retail bookstores.

The Travolta book was added to the inventories of Wal-Mart and chief competitor Target after skyrocketing in sales over the holiday season.

After adding "My Fractured Life" to its inventory in December, Target.com reported a net sales jump nationwide of 9.9%.

An article in Tri-State Today identified "My Fractured Life" as one of the holiday season's high demand gift purchases, comparable to the craze for Cabbage Patch Kids in 1983, Tickle-Me Elmo in 1996, and Michael Jordan signature shoes throughout the 1980s.

Leading bookseller Barnes & Nobel's Internet site barnesandnobel.com sold out of its stock of "My Fractured Life" for the fifth time the week of Christmas forcing a rush inventory restock in order to guarantee delivery to customers by December 24.

With the Travolta book ranked a Top Ten Featured Entertainer Biography, Amazon.com was unable to keep up with holiday demand and provided free gift notification certificates to customers as something for gift receivers to open on Christmas day.

Wal-Mart, which also operates Sam's Club membership discount warehouses, is the world's largest retailer and has over 3,000 stores and offices through the United States, and more than 1,000 stores Internationally including Canada, China, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

A front page article in the leading U.K. newsgroup publication 999 Today likens Travolta's "My Fractured Life" with New York Times bestsellers "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown, "Bleachers" by John Grisham, and "The Kennedy Curse" by Edward Klein while reporting on the book's 97,000 point jump in sales in the period of one week.

The addition of the Rikki Lee Travolta book to its select inventory of favored commodities is representative of its track record of singling-out and promoting product lines that demonstrate out of the ordinary cultural popularity.

Wal-Mart has an exclusive arrangement to offer Mary Kate and Ashley Olson brand fashion and lifestyle collections. The Mary-Kate and Ashley brand at Wal-Mart is the fastest-growing 'tween and teen line of apparel, accessories and domestics in America.

A line of women's coats baring the name and endorsement of romance cover model and commercial spokesman Fabio broke franchise sales records by 500% when introduced by Wal-Mart affiliate Sam's Club.

Likened in the media for their golden manes and porcelain features, Travolta was on hand to pose for pictures with Fabio during the November 1 launch of the outerwear line in November.

While awaiting new shipment of "My Fractured Life" to Wal-Mart locations, customers can request the book through Walmart.com's gift registry service.

"My Fractured Life" is the story of a promising young actor turned suicide victim as told from the perspective of the fallen star who discovers the body.
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