Posts Tagged ‘Food for thought

Food for Thought: Tiny Walmarts

Posted at December 1, 2010 // Retail

The news that was going through the wires over Thanksgiving was Walmart’s plan to open its first pharmacy. It is Walmart’s plan to continue to experiment with new store formats. This gave me a reminder to continue my Food for Thoughts Series.

At first, Walmart went big with the SuperCenters. Now, Walmart is going smaller and smaller in order to expand to new markets. The first attempt was the Walmart Neighborhood Market. It was a grocery store, not a general merchandise store, without all the ugliness of the general merchandise store either. The clean floor, the wide open space, natural lighting and high ceilings all made for an enjoyable shopping experience — all at a Walmart price, of course.

I had a very poor quality recording device with me at my visit, but I think you can still get a sense of the shopping experience. It is a real threat to the Kroger nearby.

Food for thought: Groceries every corner

Posted at July 25, 2010 // Retail

Kwikshop, originally uploaded by jeannie_chan.

Recently, I took a trip to Australia. There, many gas stations were partnered with the local grocery stores, making gas stations great one-stop shops. Now, we don’t have to go all the way to the other side of the world to see this. We observe this right here in the States with the recent KwikShop renovations.

These KwikShops are not only gas stations. They are pharmacies. They are your convenient take-out kitchens. They are true convenient stores!

This is just another step in the store format revolution. The line between different retail environments are blurring.

Food for thought: SuperTarget

Posted at May 2, 2010 // Retail

Sometimes, people are confused when I use the term SuperTarget. This is because SuperTargets, unlike WalMart SuperCenters, are not yet commonplace across the nation. There are only a little over 200 SuperTargets across the nation. (Incidentally, one of the first ones were built right here in the little town I live in back in 1995.)

Target operates four store formats (exclude one-off urban stores). They are Targets, Target Greatlands, PFresh Stores, and SuperTargets. These are listed in order of their grocery offerings. Targets have very limited grocery offerings, and are generally the smallest in size. Greatlands have more offerings than the basic Targets. PFresh Store format is Target’s newest, currently being rolled out. These stores would focus on Target’s private label brands. SuperTargets offer Target shoppers the widest variety of grocery items. As you can see in the video above, they basically fit a grocery store inside a Target store. These stores are very large, and is the epitome of one stop shop for the savvy Target shoppers.

The threat from Target, unlike Walmart, is not generated through scale. As mentioned above, SuperTargets are not commonplace, and there is unlikely one right around the corner from your everyday grocery stores. However, Target is very good at attracting a specific segment of shoppers via their product offering. Their private label commands a following that warrants a new store format! These shoppers may not go buy meat and fresh vegetable every week. But they pick up cookies, ready-to-be-microwaved meals, etc. that are widely available at many Targets across different store formats. And they are picking up their favorite brand – Archer Farm, the private label brand available only at Target.