Attention, shoppers: Wal-Mart (WMT) has announced it is cutting prices on about 10,000 items. That’s good news for consumers still struggling to pay down debt and navigate a tight job market — but it could put the squeeze on competing chains that lack the giant’s unmatched ability to squeeze efficiencies out of suppliers.

Wal-Mart’s move comes in the wake of comparable same-store sales for the quarter ending January that were down 2% year-over-year. That’s a big turnaround for the retailer, which experienced strong sales through the financial crisis. In comparison, Target (TGT) reported Thursday that comparable same-store sales for March were up 10%, and Kohl’s (KSS) were up 22.5% for the month.

While there are signs that consumers are spending more in some discretionary categories like fashion, “it’s far from certain that we’re seeing a real consumer move back up the food chain,” says Bret Jordan, an analyst at Avondale Partners. By cutting prices now, it looks like Wal-Mart could be seeking to retain the slightly more affluent consumer who may have traded down to the big-box retailer in the aftermath of the financial crisis, Jordan says. “Once you’ve saved money on a comparable item, you really don’t have a lot of incentive to spend more on the same thing,” he says.

What’s more, the cuts signal that Wal-Mart has learned the lessons of its unsuccessful attempt to draw more fashion-oriented consumers to their apparel offerings, says Brian Sozzi, a retail analyst at Wall Street Strategies. “They’re not going to do what they did in 2007 and try to chase Target’s business model,” Sozzi says.

Wal-Mart’s scale and buying power make its moves impossible for competitors to ignore. Still, the cuts could be mostly headline-grabbing. “I’m not ultimately sure that they are going to be world-changing,” Jordan says. “I’m not sure that a well-publicized price cut won’t be followed by gradual price inflation,” he says. A Wal-Mart spokesperson says that price rollbacks typically last 90 days, and “you will see different items on rollback.”

Here’s a look at how Wal-Mart’s most recent rollbacks might affect five competitors:

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