Filed under: Products and services, Wal-Mart (WMT), Marketing and advertising
When I lived in Southwest Virginia, my home was about a mile from a Wal-Mart Supercenter. Even though I had shopped at Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) for years, the convenience of the massive store made it into my go-to place for everything from oil filters to rutabagas. I became a Wal-Mart junkie.
One of the things that I swiftly noticed about the Squalor Mart was the fact that it is a perfect example of capitalism in action. In my years of shopping at the store, I noticed that obscure products would show up regularly. Sometimes they’d stay, sometimes they’d leave; it all depended upon how well they sold. For example, when the area got a big influx of Latin Americans, the store dedicated an entire row to dried chilies, beans, hot sauces, tortillas and whatnot. Similarly, as more and more yuppies began frequenting the store, I noticed a definite spike in organic convenience foods. In both cases, Wal-Mart offered better prices (and superior service) than the small stores that specialized in these obscure items.
Wal-Mart’s problem lies not with what it can offer, but with what it can’t: intimacy and a small scale. This, of course, is why many areas have fought so hard to keep Wal-Mart out. They don’t want to lose their cute tiny neighborhood stores to the large, bad capitalist behemoth, which leads to an inevitable question: can Wal-Mart, the ultimate superstore, offer a shopping experience that is anathema to its time-proven formula?
To a certain extent, Wal-Mart has already done so with its “Neighborhood Market” outlets. At roughly 40,000 square feet, these stores are about 20% the size of the ubiquitous supercenters, and are designed to cover the same product lines as a standard grocery store. Recently, the retailing giant began unveiling “Marketplace” stores. These shops are much smaller, and their focus is on fresh food, prepared meals and quick service.
On the one hand, Wal-Mart Marketplaces could definitely fill a niche that the monstrous supercenters can’t. With their smaller size, reduced offerings and emphasis on service, they could provide a way for Wal-Mart to penetrate markets that have closed themselves off to the retailer. Moreover, there are no lack of harried purchasers eager to pick up good, fresh meals with a minimum of fuss. On the other hand, can a company that has made its mark with deep discounts and pave-the-earth warehouse stores really offer an intimate neighborhood venue?
My money’s on Wal-Mart!
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