When it comes to Wal-Mart’s future supermarket, don’t think it’s a retail giant shopping center. They have nothing to do with it. Wal-Mart calls its future supermarket "Neighborhood Market". They are smaller and closer to the city center, and only sell daily necessities and consumer goods.
Charles O’Shea, vice president of rating agency Moody’s, believes that these future supermarkets of Wal-Mart will mainly pose a threat to traditional retail supermarkets such as Whole Foods and krogh. Because it can rely on Wal-Mart’s extensive supply chain, the neighborhood supermarket has a unique advantage compared with its competitors.
Charles O’Shea predicted that in the end, Wal-Mart’s future supermarkets will surpass shopping centers in number. Wal-Mart now has 656 neighborhood supermarkets and more than 3,400 shopping centers.
Let’s visit the neighborhood supermarket in Richmond, Virginia, and see what will be in the supermarket in the future.
The appearance of the neighborhood supermarket looks not much different from that of the conventional Wal-Mart supermarket, but the parking spaces are more compact.
The inside of the supermarket is much smaller than the traditional Wal-Mart, with only 10 rows of shelves, which looks a bit like a mini-krogh supermarket.
Most neighborhood supermarkets cover an area of about 42,000 square feet (about 3,900 square meters), which is about 1/5 of the Wal-Mart shopping center.
When you walk into the supermarket, the first thing you see is the fresh food area. Wal-Mart plans to build 95 new neighborhood supermarkets this year, less than originally expected. Greg Foran, CEO of Wal-Mart USA, said last week that the company is increasingly advocating the concept of "improving the profitability and quantity of neighborhood supermarkets by improving the freshness of food and the service level of supermarkets."
The fresh area is full of all the fruits and vegetables you need for daily cooking.
There is even a small organic food area where fruits and vegetables look very fresh and clean.
A Wal-Mart spokesman said that placing boxes of extra products under the display shelves would enable supermarket employees to complete replenishment more quickly and conveniently. In addition, it also allows employees to sort out empty containers directly in the sales area, without leaving the sales area and going to the warehouse behind the store to repair the shelves.
Generally speaking, the service provided by supermarkets to customers in the future is excellent. Almost every corridor in the store has employees who greet you warmly and ask if you need help. If the shopping basket looks too heavy, an employee will give you a trolley.
There are a lot of square slices of ham in the cooked food and bread section, but there seems to be not much roast chicken.
A Wal-Mart spokesman said that the store will replenish roast chicken at lunch and dinner, and now these roast chickens on the shelves are left after the lunch rush hour. In order to avoid waste, the store will cook according to the needs of customers, so the remaining amount of roast chicken varies with the daily passenger flow.
There are many fresh baked cookies, cupcakes and bread in the bread area.
There are many choices of wine and beer. Some customers who live near the neighborhood supermarket can choose the goods online and then pick them up at the store. Wal-Mart has established online shopping malls in 20 cities.
Soft drinks occupy two rows of shelves, including water, soda and sports drinks. Furniture and baby products are displayed on some shelves.
On the shelf where soda water is sold, there is also an oven for sale. Unlike other stores, Wal-Mart’s neighborhood supermarkets only sell food and daily necessities.
All the shelves in the middle floor are well placed and very clean and tidy.
However, some shelves look a little redundant. It doesn’t seem necessary to make so much room for vegetable oil.
So is ketchup.
There is also a lot of salad dressing … …
Or salad dressing … … Really saved too much … …
I also found some kitchen appliances, such as coffee machine, toaster and oven.
Because the size of the store is very small, I can easily find the goods I need. Compared with the larger shopping malls in krogh, if you want to finish shopping quickly, the neighborhood supermarket will be a better choice.
Many low-priced goods can be seen on two rows of containers of frozen food.
Neighborhood supermarkets have always performed very well in sales. In the latest quarter, the same-store sales of neighborhood supermarkets increased by 7.3%, while the same-store sales of all Wal-Mart stores in the United States increased by 1.5%.
At present, 75% of the goods in the neighborhood stores are food, and another 25% include cleaning products, pet products and medicines. Supermarkets separate this part from food and set up a separate area to make it easier for customers to find the goods they need.
The shelves of laundry supplies are in good order.
The shelves around the drug area are much shorter than the food shelves, which makes the signs of the drug area more clear and conspicuous.
On the way to check out, there are some cheap goods on the shelves.
Although the passenger flow in the supermarket has been very stable, there is no long queue at the checkout counter. The checkout is very fast.
Generally speaking, Wal-Mart Neighborhood Supermarket and its services have left a deep impression on reporters. This is completely different from the feeling of shopping in Wal-Mart. It can be said that this is a completely new experience. It is not difficult to understand why the concept of neighborhood supermarket will be a great success.
"Our customers like neighborhood supermarkets very much, because we can not only provide the convenience of community grocery stores and pharmacies, but also provide millions of rich products in Wal-Mart’s online shopping mall." John Forrest Ales, a Wal-Mart spokesman, said: "These neighborhood supermarkets are the perfect combination of convenience shopping and our huge super shopping center, which can be said to be impeccable."
Translation: Zhou Yifan
