(This is a Brand Experience Brief — a video audit and analysis of a new or interesting restaurant or retail concept.)
Walmart Neighborhood Market, a smaller format store, competes against dollar stores and grocery stores — it looks to me like they just might win the fight. Check it out:
Brand Experience Brief: Walmart Neighborhood Market (by Denise Lee Yohn) from Denise Lee Yohn on Vimeo.
other brand experience briefs:
Thanks for the tour and perspective on the Walmart Neighborhood Market. Your assessment is similar to our experience with a new Neighborhood Market in Chicago. These stores are fresh, clean, and bright compared to typical Walmart stores, but don’t stand out as dramatically, in our experience, from the newer supercenters.
Our research at Brick Meets Click finds that shoppers are impressed by the Walmart price comparisons vs. competition like Ralph’s and that the management of the Neighborhood Markets have the autonomy, which allows them to respond to the needs of the local market which is a nice advantage.
The only concern with your positive forecast for Walmart Markets relates to the lower sales per square foot that may not be able to meet Walmart’s return on investment objectives without the support of extensive high margin general merchandise.
After just seeing Tesco bail on their Fresh & Easy Neighborhood market concept, do you believe Wal-Mart’s version will make enough to sustain the idea? I know they have endless amounts of money to throw at this if they want to, but I think this concept seems to be caught in the middle between mega grocery stores, c-stores and the Whole Foods/Trader Joe’s brands. What are some meaningful points of difference these brands could use to separate themselves?
bill — thanks for sharing your findings — it will be interesting to see how much support the company gives this. — denise lee yohn
alex — the main point of difference is price, which is a pretty strong one and one they have equity in. — denise lee yohn