Wal-Mart has launched a new, colorful website for its Marketside small-format (15,000 -to- 20,000 square foot) community grocery stores and has announced its first four combination grocery and fresh foods stores in the Phoenix Metropolitan/East Valley region cities of Gilbert, Mesa, Chandler and Tempe will open in the fall rather than this summer as the retailer originally had planned.
View the new Wal-Mart Marketside website here.
Natural~Specialty Foods Memo first reported in August-September, 2007 that Wal-Mart would open the first four of the new Marketside format stores in these Arizona cities. Wal-Mart confirmed this two months ago when it created the website workformarketside.com where it listed job postings and began excepting online applications for store manager and assistant manager positions at the four Marketside stores in these four Arizona cities.
Wal-Mart originally planned to open at least one or more of the four stores this summer, according to our sources. In fact, it was hoped the first store would open before August 4, when David Wild, Wal-Mart's senior vice president for business development and the head of the Marketside format development team, leaves the company to become CEO of Halfords, a United Kingdom-based car part and bicycle retailer.
Based on Wal-Mart's announcement today, that's not going to be the case. Wal-Mart offered no specific month or date this fall when the first store would open; just that they will open in the fall of 2008.
As we've reported previously, Wal-Mart's Marketside will have its own offices in Tempe, Arizona, rather than being operated out of Wal-Mart corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. Starting on June 30, Marketside will open a recruiting office to hire for the Arizona stores at this address: 800 E. Southern AvenueTempe, AZ 85282. Marketside has already been accepting applications and conducting interviews for positions. But the opening of this recruiting office will kick the process into high gear, according to our sources.
The new Marketside website positions the stores as we've been reporting for months now, as small "community grocery stores" with a focus on fresh foods and basic grocery items. In fact, on the new website, Wal-Mart describes Marketside this way "Marketside is a small community grocery store owned by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc."
Interestingly, Tesco originally planned to name its Fresh & Easy USA division and stores, Fresh & Easy Community Market, but changed it to Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market after the retailer said research with focus groups demonstrated a preference for "Neighborhood" over "Community" in the name. [This has been publicly stated by both Tesco PLC CEO Terry Leahy and Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood market CEO Tim Mason. Tesco makes no mention on its Fresh & Easy website that Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is owned by Tesco, like Wal-Mart mentions about Marketside being owned by Wal-Mart on the new Marketside website.
Ironically, Wal-Mart's original small-format supermarket (at least small-format for Wal-Mart at the time at 45,000 square feet), which it continues to expand in terms of store count, is called Wal-Mart Neighborhood Markets. Wal-Mart built its first Wal-Mart Neighborhood Markets store in the mid -to- late 1970's.
The Marketside website plays up the stores' and its workers passion for food, especially fresh foods, with pictures and text about food and Marketside's commitment to offering "the freshest food available in-store and the best customer service."
As we've reported, the Marketside stores will have in-store kitchens where the fresh food items will be prepared, along with a seating area that will sit about 10 customers at any one given time. Take-out is expected to be the big draw for the fresh in-store, prepared foods in the stores however.
Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market makes its fresh, prepared foods at a central kitchen in Southern California and ships the items to its current 61 stores in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona.
The new website also makes an effort to reinforce the message that Marketside prices will be value-oriented, rather than having high prices like some publications have been suggesting recently in various stories using the angle that Wal-Mart plans to open upscale and high-priced small-format stores.
Wal-Mart's positioning for Marketside--fresh, quality foods at affordabel prices--is clear from reading this key introductory statement on the website reprinted below in italics:
Welcome to Marketside
"Marketside provides fresh, innovative answers to the daily question, "What's for dinner tonight?" Our unique product and shopping experience will change the way you shop for — and think about — fresh food, and our prices will keep you coming back."
It's clear Wal-Mart is positioning Marketside as a small, community grocery store as it calls it, featuring basic groceries and fresh foods with a clear value proposition.
Our sources have told us all along, and we have reported, that the Marketside stores will be slightly upscale but also will offer value pricing, which is Wal-Mart's stock in trade across all of its formats.
The new Marketside website also has photographs of the uniforms (burnt red-color grocery aprons with Marketside in gold lettering) store-level employees will wear. The uniforms, which are in the same colors used in the website and in other Marketside design and marketing elements and materials (hint: look for these to be the design colors used in and outside the stores) are designed to depict "freshness," which is the key marketing and positioning element for Marketside.
The website also features a sign up area here called "Stay in the Know," where consumers can sign up to receive a Marketside newsletter on a regular basis as well as receiving email up dates about Marketside.
The new Marketside website incorporates Wal-Mart's earlier job listing-only website (http://www.workformarketside.com/), including having listings in its "Join Our Team" section for the new store-level Pantry Controller and Meal Specialist positions as we reported in this piece, Small-Format Food Retailing Memo: Wal-Mart's Marketside Hiring For More Positions; Getting Closer to Summer Opening Date In Arizona yesterday, along with the store manager and assistant manager positions we've previously reported on.
Wal-Mart is looking for sites for the Marketside community grocery stores throughout California.
Natural~Specialty Foods Memo also reported in this piece, "Small-Format Food Retailing Special Report: Is Reno, Nevada Next After Arizona For Wal-Mart's Small-Format Marketside?" about Wal-Mart's interest in locating a Marketside Small-Mart in a new and upcoming development in Reno, Nevada.
In terms of the Arizona market, Wal-Mart plans to use Marketside as part of its three format--Supercenters, 45,000 square foot Neighborhood Markets and now Marketside--food and grocery retailing strategy in Arizona to become the market share leader in the state.
Secondarily, Wal-Mart plans to use Marketside, along with its other formats, to attempt to strike a serious competitive blow to the start up Fresh & Easy chain.
It looks like readers and others will have to wait until the fall to see the Fresh & Easy vs Marketside Small-Mart battle begin (the first four Marketside stores are very close to existing Fresh & Easy stores) rather than this summer.
That gives Tesco time to open more Arizona Fresh & Easy stores as well, which it will soon start doing after ending its three month new store opening pause on July 2 when a new store opens in Manhattan Beach in Southern California. New Arizona stores will start opening shortly after that date. Their currently are about 20 Fresh & Easy grocery markets open and operating in Arizona.
The launching of its new Marketside website by Wal-Mart though is a clear indication things are getting serious with the world's largest retailer when it comes to its new Small-Mart development, Marketside. After all, fall is just around the corner.
Related Reading:
Click here to read recent coverage and analysis by Natural~Specialty Foods Memo about Wal-Mart's Marketside Small-Mart community grocery store development.
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