Wal-Mart Will Expand Via Marketside Concept In Urban Areas
Ever hear of the grocery store chain “Marketside“?
Probably not, but it seems as though you will over the coming years. Oh yea, and Marketside is being developed as a new concept by Walmart.
Currently Marketside has four stores, each one around 20,000 sqft – a larger than your typical Walgreens or CVS drug store, but drastically smaller than the typical Wal-Mart or Target stores. Marketside is very similar to Tesco’s Fresh & Easy stores which are popping up all around California, Nevada and Arizona, and the concept even reminds me of a more “corporate” Trader Joes with its push on organic and natural food products. The Marketside branding doesn’t openly mention Walmart, but it isn’t trying to hide its affiliation with Walmart either – just checking on Marketside’s website shows a “Copyright Walmart Stores” at the bottom of every page.
(Here is a video of Marketside from YouTube)
It’s a great concept and I love the idea of being able to create a new stand-alone brand that fulfills a need
Crain’s New York Business today published an article from the Associated Press signifying Wal-Marts intention to expand in urban areas by growing it’s Marketside brand:
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is planning an aggressive push into urban markets with a new small format that’s a fraction of the size of its supercenters.
The expansion, expected to be spelled out next month at the retailer’s meeting with analysts at its headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., is aimed to pump up sluggish U.S. sales.
Real estate executives said that over this past summer, the world’s largest retailer has been scouring for small locations, around 20,000 square feet, in urban areas including New York City, San Francisco and other cities. That size is larger than a typical drugstore but smaller than a supermarket.
WalMart has been trying to make inroads to urban areas – especially the New York City market – for years, but has constantly been rebuffed by both high property prices and opposition from citizen groups who are afraid Walmart will do more harm than good in their neighborhood.
Opening up these smaller stores may bring an increase in sales, but it’s interesting to see Walmart take their growth in this direction. Ever since they started, Walmart was the place to buy everything, hence the superstores of +100k square feet, an expansion into groceries has quickly given them the title to Americas largest grocery store – but people still go to Walmart primarily for things such as clothes, furniture, dvds, household goods etc.
Opening up Marketside stores in urban areas such as NYC will do nothing to quell the demand for a typical Walmart, (nor will it make it easier to open their Supercenters) but if they are able to keep grocery prices lower than the competition in these metro areas, it will quickly spell the end to more established (and overpriced) names such as Gristedes and Food Emporium which have dotted the urban NYC landscape for decades. I can picture the backlash now: Walmart’s little child pushing out the established players – essentially the same opposition that Walmart has been facing for years with their Supercenters, except now instead of having a Supercenter put an entire downtown out of business, it will put out the grocery stores that have never seen competition like this before.
Walmart is a double-edged sword, bringing benefits to customers, sometimes at the expense of the employees, suppliers and everyone else down the supply line..
Economists have tried to answer the question for years – is Walmart good or bad for the economy and for America as a whole – now Marketside will only add to the question.
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Category: branding, real estate
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How about putting a Marketside Store in North Venice Fl 34275 off of 75 & laurel rd exit 195 Thanks, Candy