Despite Numerous Locations and Prevalent Signage, Holiday Shoppers are Still Looking for Wal-Mart and Target

SAN DIEGO-- Even though Target’s giant red bull’s-eye lights up city skylines by the numbers and it can be hard to miss giant big-box warehouse complexes, American holiday shoppers still need assistance finding local Wal-Mart and Target stores.

Data gathered by Mobile411™ provider V-ENABLE shows that holiday shopping directory assistance searches for retail businesses tend to be mostly for big-named, large-numbered retail giants. Other popular retail searches were pharmacies, electronics stores and gaming businesses. Following retail chains, restaurants and gas stations were popular search categories. This exclusive data offers a window into Americans’ shopping habits, particularly during the holiday shopping season.

Data was gathered from November 23rd, Black Friday, to Dec. 7th from millions of searches conducted by customers of several V-ENABLE partners including major national carriers such as Alltel and MetroPCS. The fifteen retail business searches in major metropolitan areas including Los Angeles, Detroit, Atlanta, Miami, San Francisco and Dallas were:

Top Retail Searches:
          9. Toys R Us
1. Wal-Mart         10. Blockbuster Video
2. Target         11. CVS
3. Game Stop         12. Circuit City
4. Best Buy         13. Home Depot
5. Walgreens         14. Radio Shack
6. Publix         15. Sears
7. AutoZone        
8. KMart        

By simply asking your cell phone for information, V-ENABLE’s fast, intuitive solution brings up on your mobile device business (over 14 million) and residential (over 140 million) listings, detailed maps, nearby points of interest, driving directions and, in early 2008, GPS integration. This information can then be saved or even sent to a friend, and at any time you can speak to a live operator for additional assistance. While 411 is an age-old business that hasn’t seen much innovation for decades, new services like V-ENABLE’s Mobile411™ create a text and voice-activated visual 411 experience that can prove invaluable to harried holiday shoppers.

“There’s an assumption that everyone knows where their local Wal-Mart is – it’s interesting to see so many searches for major chain store locations from our customers,” said Craig Hagopian, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of V-ENABLE. “Holiday shopping season can be hectic and stressful. Spontaneous mobile services like V-ENABLE's make it convenient and easy to find businesses both big and small as you’re out checking off your gift lists.”

About V-ENABLE

V-ENABLE is the leading service provider of automated directory assistance solutions powered by our patented voice and text based technology delivering the fastest and most accurate local search experience to the mobile environment. V-ENABLE was founded by wireless experts from Nokia, Motorola, PacketVideo and Cisco. V-ENABLE's patented multi-modal local search allows mobile users to simply speak or type any location, business or residential listing and receive contact information, maps, directions and more in a visual or audio format in seconds.

The V-ENABLE mobile voice search interface software is a unique client-server solution, available on a variety of platforms including BREW®, JAVA™, Symbian™, Windows Mobile™, WAP, and xHTML.

Founded in 2001, V-ENABLE is headquartered in San Diego, CA. Mobile voice search applications powered by V-ENABLE technology have been deployed on ALLTEL, Leap Communications (Cricket Wireless), U.S. Cellular, and Verizon Wireless. For more information, visit www.V-ENABLE.com.