Large stores, and still not enough room for everything

After venturing through several non-grocery sections of a Wal-Mart Supercenter recently, it was quite apparent that Wal-Mart intends to have certain categories of goods available while not providing an immense selection of products within those categories. I'm sure this is by design, although with the way the retail landscape has changed, I am surprised the arrangement of merchandise and the actual square footage of certain categories of merchandise has stayed the same. Well, at least for the last decade or so.

Specifically, the men's clothes and shoes categories were ones that I found a little confusing. In shoes, the selection was quite limited in the Wal-Mart Supercenter I visited. There were some cheaper shoes for men, women and kids, but the style selection and the color variations were quite low compared to shoe-only stores like The Foot Locker(NYSE:FL), Famous Footwear (owned by the Brown Shoe Company(NYSE:BWS)or even Payless Shoe Source(NYSE:PSS) .Although Wal-Mart did in fact have aisles of shoes available, the actual selection seemed less than shoe-only stores. The prices, of course, were very affordable. Sometimes, having a decent selection does mean more than having products with rock-bottom prices, but shh -- don't tell Wal-Mart this.

Checking out men's fashions

After putting my mild bewilderment on hold from the shoes area long enough to stroll over to the men's clothes area, again I was a little stumped. There was quite a bit of store shelf space devoted to actual merchandise display. There were shorts, polos, jeans, denim shorts, cargo shorts and printed tees everywhere. After having thumbed through all of this merchandise, the same feeling hit as did when browsing through all the shoes: there was plenty of merchandise, but the selection was lacking. In jeans, the Wrangler brand was there along with the Levi's "Signature" brand (a cheaply-made version made just for Wal-Mart, I suspect), along with Faded Glory (a Wal-Mart private-label brand).

The selection was not that bad, but not that good either. While there was three distinct brands on the shelves, the various styles in jeans and jean shorts seemed lacking. There are many subtle variations in denim these days (check out an Abercrombie & Fitch(NYSE:ANF)store to see this), along with multiple styles and color combinations to choose from. Wal-Mart seemed to have literally two styles within each brand category and that was it. What the Supercenter was lacking in style it made up for in quantity -- boy was there a lot of denim on display. I again was scratching my head -- why did the retailer have so much quantity of limited styles instead of less quantity of more styles and varied selection? Hot Topic (NASDAQ:HOTT) seems to be able and anticipate adolescent clothing needs many times per year, but the world's largest retailer can't?

There may be a purpose here

Although the Wal-Mart Supercenter I visited seemed to have quite a bit of floor space devoted to certain shoe and mens/boys clothing categories, the quantity was much higher than the 'quality' from what I witnessed. In this frame, I'll define 'quality' as number of styles, colors and types more than actual product quality. After all, are people wanting to buy the same stuff everyone else is buying regarding clothes and shoes?

Possibly -- and the target market Wal-Mart serves cold probably care less about the specific (and often, expensive) styles of shoes and clothes the retailer offers. All that matters is price and presentation. Well, this is all fine and good, but if Wal-Mart is to move beyond supplying the "price is everything" market and into more of a mainstream market where low price must consistently meet style and other variables in product selection, it's got a way to go.

It's been said quite a few times from later in 206 to the present that Wal-Mart wants to cater more to higher-end shoppers in order to expand its customer base and also make higher margins in the product categories it already sells. This may be underway from a national store standpoint, and maybe it just has not taken hold at the Supercenter that I visited. Wal-Mart U.S. sales chief Eduardo Castro-Wright either is blowing smoke about the way Wal-Mart stores are trying to partially reinvent themselves or the process is taking longer than expected to roll out nationwide.

Wal-Mart's attempt to do everything for every customer means nothing is done extremely well

It's pretty clear to me that Wal-Mart's intention long ago to be a retail "jack of all trades" has paid off handsomely for the company. Looking at sales growth and store growth over the last decade pretty much tells this tale hard. But that can only take growth so far, right? What happens when Wal-Mart feeds every discount retail category possible but without delving into the specifics like styles, colors and brands that specialty retailers carry? Perhaps certain brands refuse to sell to Wal-Mart and prefer to keep their existing distribution channels and partners intact.

I do know that there are many manufacturers now that refuse too do business with the retailer for fear of being squeezed on price and pressured on inventory requests, but at the same time, would like to have the huge chunk of business Wal-Mart is sure to provide. Maybe the brands that do sell in the shoes and men's fashions are there as a representation of the other brands that perhaps either don't do business with Wal-Mart or that could not meet the retailer's cost demands? Who knows.

Check back right here at BloggingStocks next week for the next Wal-Mart Weekly, and until then, have a great weekend!