Following the price cuts on books last month, major retailers, including Wal-Mart are dropping prices on DVD releases pre-ordered online for the upcoming holiday buying season.

The industry leader was soon followed in this price cut by other online sellers, including Target and Amazon.com . The move by the competition led Wal-Mart to take the defensive and lower the prices even more.

DVD releases such as “Star Trek” and “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” were dropped to $10.

Not to be outdone by the competition, when Amazon set prices at $9.99, Wal-Mart countered by dropping their price to $9.98.

Wal-Mart, with sales last year topping $400 billion, was involved in a battle over book prices with Amazon and Target last month that had the companies lowering the price for some pre-order books, such as Stephen King’s “Under the Dome” and John Grisham’s “Ford Country” to as low as $8.98.

The Wal-Mart strategy has always been to lower prices and increase sales. The retailer is aware that economic factors have affected how consumers shop and their worries concerning unemployment have cut into sales and will continue to cause concern during the holiday buying season.

Wal-Mart price slash on DVD was announced amid other general item price cuts on such things as food items and children’s toys an games. They plan on keeping the prices on many items low throughout the holiday season.