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• Wal-Mart's new grocery store

  Posted Aug 27 2008, 12:34 PM by Anthony Mirhaydari
  Filed under: Retail, Wal-Mart, Food, Anthony Mirhaydari
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  At last, Wal-Mart's new Marketside grocery concept has a look: It's purple and neon-green, with natural wood finishes.

  Designed to break into the as yet untapped high-income urban demographic, shoppers who traditionally reject the company's 261,000 sq. ft. Supercenters as the epicenters of all that is wrong with consumerism, capitalism, and the plight of our planet, the new small-store format makes no mention of its corporate parent. Deep exploration of the concept's fancy website finally reveals the master.

  The first four 15,000 sq. ft. stores will be down in Arizona and are designed to go head to head with outfits like Whole Foods, complementing Wal-Mart's existing Neighborhood Market concept that takes on traditional grocers like SuperValu. Wal-Mart isn't alone in its thinking, as U.K.-based Tesco and Safeway are both ramping up small grocery concepts in response to an emerging urban living renaissance and shift towards healthier living with fresh fruits and vegetables.   Read More...

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• Pinching pennies: Consumers switch brands

  Posted Aug 06 2008, 11:41 AM by Anthony Mirhaydari
  Filed under: Retail, Wal-Mart, Kraft, Anthony Mirhaydari
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  It looks like there's a positive side to the economic slump after all: Consumers are quickly changing their spendthrift ways.

  During the second quarter, Americans lifted their savings rate to 2.6% from a pitiful 0.3%, while real consumer spending net of medical care, food, and utilities clocked in at only 0.8%. It's "a vivid sign that frugality is now replacing frivolity," in the words of Merrill Lynch economist David Rosenberg.

  This means healthy market-share gains for private-label groceries from companies like Supervalu, Kroger, and Safeway. The transition away from expensive brands is especially noticeable   Read More...

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• Wal-Mart gets a new logo

  Posted Jun 30 2008, 07:29 AM by Anthony Mirhaydari
  Filed under: Retail, Wal-Mart, Anthony Mirhaydari
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  Wal-Mart has finally decided to do something about its staid white-on-blue logo and red, blue, and grey color scheme. In a surprising move for a company that acted as though it was too big, too powerful, and too damn cheap to bother with its image problem, Wal-Mart's new face to the world will be a white "Walmart" logo and starburst on a burnt orange background and brick store exterior. This is according to planning documents filed for a new Wal-Mart Supercenter outside Memphis.

  Accompanying the new look is a new, smaller store format that features "new department titles, less signage, curved lines and earth-tone colors" according to company public affairs and government relations manager Dennis Alpert. The building will also feature lighting systems that turn on when they detect a shopper in close proximity, large skylights, and other "green building elements" in an effort to conserve energy.   Read More...

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