Marketside photos

Arizona based Fresh Produce Industry Discussion Group legend Luis has posted a couple of pictures of Wal-Mart's Marketside store on the discussion group - yet another reason for you to join the group. Here is what Luis says in a recent post:


Store is located on a side arterial street with fairly good traffic, close to relative new suburbs and positioned on a corner facing two convenient stores, one of which features a gas station. An intriguing feature of the store is the old drive-thru left over from the drug store which Walmart is likely to use as a take out. This is a feature not found on Fresh & Easies (that I know of). Talk about convenience, the American way. Developing..


Also, Luis linked to some coverage from FT on the concept. From that piece:

The design of Wal-Mart’s new small format Marketside stores, which will open in the Phoenix, Arizona area in coming weeks, marks a dramatic break with the branding of the rest of Wal-Mart’s more than 3,400 low-cost US stores.

Pictures of one of the first four new 15,000 sq ft stores, which Wal-Mart says are part of a pilot, have appeared on the website of the city of Mesa, southeast of Phoenix.

Later....

The first four stores have been built in former drugstore sites. Wal-Mart has indicated that the pilot will involve up to ten stores. It has acquired at least two other sites in the Phoenix area where it is planning to build new stores from scratch.

The new Wal-Mart stores will be competing directly with Tesco’s new Fresh & Easy small format stores. Tesco has opened 20 stores in the Phoenix area in less than a year, with another 16 sites announced so far.

TK: Luis wryly observes that Marketside is no "Jackalope" or ficticious creature after all:

All this activity focused on the big and the small, makes one wonder if the traditional supermarket footprint and assortment model is in danger of extinction. Perhaps an exaggeration but for some time, there has been evidence that it is under pressure while as noted on previous posts, the real state crunch and business failures may have freed small commercial retail space (i.e. strip malls etc), like urban swiss cheese in some places. It is going to be interesting to see what WalMart's experiment looks like.}

TK: Yes, it appears the traditional supermarket is under a tremendous amount of pressure, from dollar stores, Aldi, convenience marts, club stores, supercenters and now concepts like Fresh & Easy and Marketside. In any event, consumers are frequenting alliterative channels in increasing numbers and the fresh produce trade must adjust.