BENTONVILLE, Ark. -

Chicago-area dealer John Nelson says he’s not sure whether or not this new gas promotion from Wal-Mart will actually lead to increased sales at his store or help give his customers more spending power, but he definitely sees it catching consumer attention.

The business operations manager at Mercedes-Benz of Hoffman Estates said this new promotion can’t hurt sales or consumers’ wallets.

With the Fourth of July weekend on the horizon, Wal-Mart rolled out a $0.10-per-gallon reduction in gas prices that started Wednesday and runs through Sept. 30. The discount is good when shoppers buy gas at participating Wal-Mart and Murphy USA gas stations and use a reloadable gift card, reloadable Wal-Mart MoneyCard or Wal-Mart credit card. There are no other requirements or restrictions, officials noted.

The participating stations are located across 18 states, including Illinois, where Nelson’s dealership is located.

“This is a very timely move, as above average gas prices are an ever-present concern in the eyes of the retail buyer, especially over a holiday weekend,” Nelson indicated. “While I don’t know if there will be a direct correlation between the Wal-Mart discount and retail sales at our stores, it certainly wouldn’t hurt either.

“Personally, it strikes me as a strong marketing move for Wal-Mart to put a plan like this in action, and it is one that I’m fairly confident will drive more business their way in both gasoline and retail sales combined,” he added.

Such a sentiment may be the reaction from some of Nelson’s peers in the industry, as well, who have seen the ongoing impact from the ups-and-downs in fuel costs, which affect things like consumer buying power and which vehicle segments are hot-sellers.

Whether it’s Wal-Mart or another store cutting fuel costs, “it’s all good” when fuel prices drop, said Paul Taylor, chief economist for the National Automobile Dealers Association.

In general, he said, lower fuel costs will help push new car sales as the market moves into a critical auto-shopping weekend and the second half of the year.

“It’s all good to have less expensive gas,” Taylor noted. “We’re happy to see lower gas prices coming in. It’s a particularly critical time because there’s a shortage of, particularly, the small cars, where there’s only about 30-days supply on the new side and there are 10 days of Prius (supply), which is the stalwart seller in hybrid sales.”

Taylor noted that supply for the Toyota Prius has been around 10 days for the last two months and is likely down to four or five days supply at this point.

“So, if we had $4.50 gasoline or $5 gasoline, people would be rushing to buy hybrids and small cars, and there would be particularly few of those,” he suggested. “We have a stronger supply but not up to a normal supply of other new cars. But, at least if everybody is looking for new cars across the board, that’s much better than if they’re looking for those that are in particularly tight supply.”

In the used-car market, of course, the recession caused short trade-in volume, which has pushed values up, Taylor noted. A jump in new-car sales is much needed to help this market, as well, he stressed.

“What we need are some new cars into the market,” Taylor noted. “We can’t produce more low-mileage used cars.”

Moreover, lower gas prices have a much broader economic impact, he stressed. For instance, fuel declines help the travel and vacation industry, which in turn can generate more summer jobs for students, Taylor explained.

Participating States

Moving along, Wal-Mart provided a list of the states where stations are offering the discount. They are as follows:

• Arkansas
• Georgia
• Idaho
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Michigan
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• New Mexico
• North Carolina
• Ohio
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Virginia