Welcome to the 53rd installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions, and just a bit of everything else when it comes down to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

In this week's Wal-Mart Weekly, I'll be looking at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) positioning in the consumer electronics category. Wal-Mart has always served customers looking for the latest television sets to iPods to home theater systems, but generally has not focused in on the 'ministore' concept for merchandising these products.

When visiting a local Wal-Mart Supercenter this week, I was rather stunned to find a Best Buy Inc. (NYSE: BBY) type of appearance in Wal-Mart's consumer electronics department. In fact, the new planogram and merchandising arrangement reminded me of -- Best Buy itself.

Here's your sign

To my surprise, this Wal-Mart Supercenter's electronics section has been gutted to a large degree and had been replaced by a long, 100-foot TV wall that featured just about every single flat-panel television the location offered. All sets were playing the same material and all looked excellent, making me think a high-definition signal was being played on all of them. The flooring had even been redone to emulate real wood floors in homes, and the space was very, very open.

To a retailer who cringes over the waste of a single square inch of floor selling space, to see probably 2,000 of it dedicated to nothing bu a viewing floor was quite a surprise. As you can see in the picture above, the display is quite nice, with brand name banners above the sets themselves and a nice way to view all the sets in one area with minimal visual distraction. But that wasn't all.

Next to the TV wall was a completely enclosed area with a large flat-panel television and a complete surround sound system set-up (complete with subwoofer). This reminded me of the "complete system" set-ups you'd find in any higher-end electronics station, and my guess is that Wal-Mart was trying to emphasize the emotional connection for customers between a large flat-panel television and all the sound that should accompany it. Since Wal-Mart isn't know for selling audio systems, this was a display geared toward getting customers over the hump on buying a new flat panel television.

The ministore concept works at Wal-Mart

I have to say that Wal-Mart's attempt at a branded area of this supercenter geared towards television inventory was very well done. In fact, I would consider it ahead of Circuit City Stores Inc. (NYSE: CC) flat panel television display from the stores I've come in contact with recently. I do believe Best Buy still has the best display available for showcasing all of its flat panel television inventory -- which features a darkened area of the store with a TV wall like Wal-Mart's wall. With Best Buy, the contrast of being able to view many televisions without all the harsh, big-box store lighting is a treat.

Wal-Mart really can't wall off a section of its store, reduce the lighting and create a miniature flat panel television viewing center, but it sure has come close. This is a concept that I've talked about many times in the past in regards to Wal-Mart's merchandising -- the ministore concept. The trick is to get customers inside the doors (traffic), then to have many smaller stores under the big-box roof that cater to individual needs. In the case of consumer electronics, a separated television "ministore" concept works wonderfully in this case.

Who is to say that Wal-Mart couldn't begin applying this concept to areas such as grocery merchandising, automotive, and lawn and garden? Modular ministore merchandising could make Wal-Mart customers psychologically feel like they're visiting a dedicated competitor. Creating a "Best Buy" type of environment inside a Wal-Mart could be followed by creating a "Home Depot" type of environment for lawn and garden (complete with tools and home hardware) as another example of a "ministore" inside the standard Wal-Mart Supercenter.

Wal-Mart is making merchandising strides

I believe Wal-Mart sees that it has to serve the customer in many product segments like the dedicated retailers do to compete effectively and grow sales in those areas. Just a decade ago, Wal-Mart was the one-stop shop for just about everything. Now, you have Best Buy for all things consumer electronics, Lowe's Cos. (NYSE: LOW) and The Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) for everything home improvement, and Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) for all those grocery needs. This isn't to say Wal-Mart is failing in any of those areas, but the specialized retailers aren't really hurting that much either. Well, some that haven't learned to compete with Wal-Mart are.

What is surprising is that Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) really hasn't taken the lead in consumer electronics merchandising and display like Wal-Mart has shown here. From the SuperTarget locations I've visited recently, consumer electronics are still being marketed in "plain jane" fashion -- there's no compelling reason (other than price) to buy a flat-panel television at Target. Perhaps that is by design, or perhaps not. Target is still the shiny and bright alternative to Wal-Mart's warehouse-type approach to merchandising, but I don't see it trying to set a "ministore" trend like it larger competitor is starting to do. In fact, I'd go so far as to call Target's consumer electronics merchandising subpar considering it is the second-largest discount retailer in the U.S.

Would you buy a television from Wal-Mart if you saw a merchandising presentation like the one above? Sound off below in comments and let me know about it. Until then, have a great weekend and see you right here this time next week for another edition of The Wal-Mart Weekly.