Wal-Mart plans for smaller, urban stores with fresh food

[RamboLiberal]

Source: USA Today

Wal-Mart plans to expand into urban markets with smaller stores that carry fresh food.

The expansion, geared to improving lackluster sales, is expected to be spelled out next month at the retailer's meeting with analysts at its headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., according to the Associated Press.

"Urban is just the next frontier," says Madison Riley, managing director of retail consulting firm Kurt Salmon Associates. "There are only so many places they can grow."

Wal-Mart (WMT) has been scouting smaller locations in urban areas around the country, according to real estate executives. Around New York City, Wal-Mart has been looking for smaller stores in Queens and the lower part of Manhattan, says Faith Consolo, chairman of Prudential Douglas Elliman's retail leasing division.


Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2010-09-20-walmart-urban_N.htm

[otohara]

1. They've Littered The Burbs

I hope the urban-ites reject this facade.

[BrklynLiberal]

9. +1000

[Evasporque]

2. This is good...too bad it is WalMart doing it...

Though the Dollar Stores and Family Dollar have long been established they already show there is a market for small.

I like small.

I always thought a main street Target would be cool.
Or a main street size Kohls...

Madison WI State Street is a good example of a thriving outdoor traditional retail environment with a mix of national and local stores, food and bars.

What sucks is WalMart will undermine the surviving mom and pop corner groceries.

[get the red out]

22. +1

Fighting food disparity is a good thing, but I can't trust Walmart on ANYTHING. I guess we will see who it helps and who gets hurt.

[DJ13]

3. So their next target for assination are both mom & pop stores and Whole Foods?

[onehandle]

6. And Trader Joe's. Most urban areas have resisted the big stores. Hopefully they will fight these. nt

[leveymg]

4. Wal*Mart "fresh food" - means it comes in plastic wrap rather than a can. Yum.

Wal*Mart - Always looking to put smaller retail establishments in America into bankruptcy. Always.

[Sabriel]

5. It's actually a great idea

If they keep their prices low and offer "good" food, it could have a real impact on those whose choices are limited in urban areas.

Think of how many people are forced to shop at convenience stores or little grocery stores that gouge them. Yeah, there are mom and pop stores in those areas, but some of them are unethical in the way they price their stuff for low-income areas.

[leveymg]

7. Bye, bye to the last enclaves of small retailers in America, Great idea.

Think of how many more neighborhoods can be strip-malled. Great idea.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

23. But they don't keep the prices low.

When they came to town they ran out most of the other stores around and then raised(gasp) their prices!

[BrklynLiberal]

8. I hope hope hope NYC maintains its policy to not allow them..

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

29. Disallow Walmart? On what grounds?

As long as Walmart has the money to buy the property, and meets the city codes, they should be allowed to put a store there.

Just like a mosque.

:hi:

[BrklynLiberal]

31. City Council will not approve the construction and environmental impact.

Labor unions will fight it tooth and nail. It seems that Wal-Mart has this tendency to shut down stores that try to unionize.

[quakerboy]

34. With this smaller store idea

they do an end run around that. They can lease or buy existing space, and not have to get approval to build. It wouldn't surprise me if that's exactly the motivation behind this new idea. If you can't start the first blackberry vine, you cant grow to choke off all other plant life. So you gotta find some way to get it in there. If they won't let you plant a whole vine, just drop a couple seeds and let time do the rest.

[BrklynLiberal]

39. That sounds like something they would do...Hope the unions fight it hard enough to stop it.

[Enrique]

10. fresh Soylent Green

:9

[PfcHammer]

11. Just as long as I can still get 6 pairs of Chinese tube socks for 0.99

in the middle of the night.
:eyes:

[Kringle]

36. lol .nt

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

12. WalMart: A Celebration . . .

. . . of mediocrity.

[CoffeeCat]

13. Walmart can try to be "small"...

...but I really don't think they'll pull it off.

Walmart is associated with ginormous stores and a warehouse mentality.

People like their local grocery stores. And our local grocery store (Hy-Vee)
is employee owned and they are very competitive with Walmart. You can't
beat their sale prices. I rarely, if ever, go into Walmart.

There are too many people who hate Walmart. They want more than cheap stuff
from a store that's bigger than most strip malls. Shoppers want real food and
they also want to shop at a store that treats its employees well.

The good news is---this action on Walmart's part--is because sales are lagging.
Sales are lagging because they suck and so many know it. Also, they tout being
cheap, but really--they aren't. That's kind of a marketing ploy that isn't
always true. Maybe many are discovering this.

Walmart is such a behemoth. It will be nearly impossible to try to re-brand itself
into this "small" "fresh food" outfit. They are who they are. They made billions
off of that "cheap, low price" branding.

I doubt people buy into what they're selling.

[wmbrew0206]

18. Actually Walmart's competetive advantage is that their large size allows them to have

an enormously strong and inexpensive supply chain.

They could open stores that are smaller and still offer the goods they sell at a much lower price then the competition.

I would not say Walmart's sales are lagging. Their growth is slowing. Walmart wants to have continued growth to show Wall Street, so it is in to urban centers they go.

[Tsiyu]

14. it will be awesome

if 'regular folks' do this instead.

have little farmer's markets and fresh food markets everywhere

(Screw WartMall)


You know, like you find in Europe, that socialist hell :sarcasm:

[pitohui]

17. it isn't "awesome" because the little farmer's markets are just rip offs

the prices around here at the farmer's markets are just obscene, i can't understand it, salaries in louisiana are not that high, your little bundle of limp lettuce is not worth $6, cripes!!!

i gave up on the nice folks who sell out of their truck that time i bought a box of creole tomatoes for too high of a price, got home, found out that they had put rotten tomatoes as the entire bottom layer...sheesh...fool me once, won't get fooled again

i'm really tired of "mom and pops" who think it's OK to steal from people because they're all believers in jeebus and vote GOP and you're prob. just a heathen, fuck em

i'll stick w. the grocery store until such time as there's some honesty at the farmer's markets and truck stands, in europe, the little farmer's markets are priced way too high also but people have more disposable income so it's understandable, i'm an american, i have to pay $10K a year or whatever it is just off the top for health insurance/co-pays, don't gouge me on freaking tomatoes too

fortunately where i live i can grow a bit of my own food every month of the year

[supernova]

19. Our FMs this year started accepting WIC program payments

It's been wonderful. But not everybody has that.

Inner cities need more green grocers of all stripes.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

15. meh

the only stores walmart displaced around here were earlier and crappier big box stores, nobody was living the dream working at Fedco.

[pitohui]

16. we must be a test market, we've had it for over a year in louisiana

the walmart neighborhood market is actually pretty nice, rather foofy though, i'm not paying $14 for a bottle of pomegranate juice...

it's a strange place, much better quality meat than the actual walmart supercenter for the plebes...but in louisiana i'm not sure how it can compete w. the local groceries we already have such as rouse's that already have quality meat/deli/seafood

they have $3 bottles of wine just like the big walmart but last time i checked i didn't see any $27 bottles of grey goose or any other hard liquor so you would still have to run out to the "real" walmart if you wanted more than a bottle of wine for your dinner party...

also it's just weird because it isn't really quite big enough, there's high end dog and cat food but no food for other pets

i visited once or twice and resumed shopping at rouse's myself

as for whole foods, i don't know who can afford to shop there either...

people who think "whole foods" or the korean grocery store offer fair prices must have never shopped at "whole foods" or the korean grocery store, walmart has NO monopoly on unfair price gouging, in fact, they can't hold a candle to "whole foods" or to mom and pops -- the mom and pops, sorry, people, but those people should be in jail in most places for what they charge for canned crap and a token apple covered with bruises -- i wish we would wake up to the fact that most "mom and pops" are exploitive of our communities and vote GOP at the end of the day, they don't support our communities, they will NEVER support our communities so fuck 'em as far as i'm concerned, we're fighting for those who hate us and always will

[Igel]

20. No, not test market.

Just the recipient of early expansion.

We've had them in Houston for a few years--I think I first saw one in 2006 or 2007, but it wasn't in a neighborhood I went to often.

Cleaner, a bit bigger than other supermarkets in the area (none of them "mom and pop"), with a bigger selection of fresh food than the smaller, mom-and-pop convenience stores.

Oddly, people complain about "urban deserts" in which there is an insufficiency of fresh food at reasonable prices because the small stores don't offer fresh veggies/fruits or gouge. Apparently urban deserts and gouging are preferred to having a Walmart "neighborhood market"--perfection or damnation, it seems.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

41. I call it righteous starvation

It is the same mentality that would rather see people in the developing world stave to death than use modern agricultural methods,

[SoapBox]

21. What was that Ahnold movie? Taco Bell??

...will the world be like the movie and the only place around
is Wal Mart?

[RZM]

24. I think that was 'Demolition Man'

Starring Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes and Sandra Bullock. I watched it as a young adolescent and thought it was laughably bad.

[Submariner]

25. Walmart will get all the 2nd rate cheap pesticide/herbicide laden

veggies/fruit rejected by the buyers of other supermarket chains. Then they'll be able to buy and sell the cheap food cheap.

[alp227]

26. I sure as hell ain't shopping there.

Wal-Mart has such a crummy reputation because it abuses its employees and kills small business. You never know if Wal-Mart reneges on this promise and ends up selling processed junk instead.

[arikara]

27. Ew... walmart "fresh food"

equals lots of plastic wrapped, chemical laced GE and frankenfood substances. Not a place I'd ever shop. Ew. I'll go out and pick dandelion and nettle greens before shopping in a walmart.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

30. Having shopped for food in Detroit ...

... I think Walmart would be a welcome improvement in some urban areas.

Detroit has quite a few roach-infested grocery stores, with questionable "fresh" food, and jacked-up prices. Because the large grocery chains avoid the inner city. Many residents drive (or ride the bus) quite a distance to find a reasonable store with decent prices.

Normally, I'd agree that Walmart has bad food. But, it may be an improvement, unfortunately.

:hi:

[blue_onyx]

35. I'm surprised...

Walmart hasn't opened store in Detroit already. I think they would do very well since there's not tons of options in the city.

[Quantess]

32. Actually, their produce section is pretty appealing. To me, at least.

And I loathe WalMart, in general.

Wal Mart (oddly enough) was the only place for me to buy groceries within walking distance, where I used to live. If I didn't want to drive to a grocery store I preferred, I'd walk to WalMart. Their produce was actually just as good as any other supermarket.

[pipoman]

37. Must have been an

aberration..every Wal-Mart I've been in has old produce, unkempt displays, and tasteless products.

[Quantess]

40. It was in the Seattle area.

I guess they wisely figured that Seattle-ites won't put up with lousy produce.

[Crowman1979]

28. The produce section at Wal-Mart is HORRENDOUS!!!

You'd be better off eating crab apples or fake oranges.

[Buns_of_Fire]

33. They'll be able to pick up the storefronts of the people they've put out of business pretty cheaply

I imagine I'll withhold judgement on whether this is going to be a good thing or a bad thing for the time being -- but could they blame anyone for being a little skeptical?

[Javaman]

38. It appears as if they have saturated the "heartland" and are now going after the suburbs

Zombie Walmart.