Wal-Mart (WMT) sprucing up stores . . . and produce aisles?

Posted Mar 13th 2009 1:00PM by Brian White
Filed under: Products and Services, Competitive Strategy, Wal-Mart (WMT), Marketing and Advertising

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) may be trying to become more shopper-friendly by having fresher produce available. That's right -- no more wilted lettuce and aged apples, my friends. One of the ways food retailers can really differentiate themselves is by having fresh food available that actually looks fresh. To that effect, Wal-Mart will be marketing its produce sections soon to advertise that its stores really should be a choice for more American shoppers.

The funny thing is that Wal-Mart is already grabbing more and more shopper dollars as consumers tighten wallets and purses and trade down from more expensive retailers to Wal-Mart's shelves. It's one of the only retailers actually growing sales month to month and is surviving the recession pretty much intact so far. This latest effort will ensure that it doesn't lose any customers, and may even help recruit new ones.

A recent research visit made me conclude on thing: Wal-Mart is definitely making changes. In both the food sections and the general merchandise sections, gone were the main aisles stuffed with pallet displays and impulse purchases. The new space created in these main traffic aisles was bright and cheery. Both Wal-Mart locations I visited even had park benches installed every fifty feet or so to let patrons take a load off while shopping.

This is something I've never seen before in a Wal-Mart: less merchandise and more room to maneuver between product aisles. So, get your newer, fresher produce soon and have a more pleasant shopping experience at the same time. Wal-Mart's attempt to keep customers under that one roof buying everything possible has made some major strides.

Tags: inthenews, wal-mart, wal-mart stores, Wal-martStores, WMT