Neighborhood Market reinvented in Marketside

BENTONVILLE, Ark. It appears Wal-Mart's small format Neighborhood Market store will live up to its name later this year when the company opens its first four Marketside stores in the Phoenix area.

Eduardo Castro-Wright, president and ceo of Wal-Mart U.S. stores division, offered new insight into the retailer's thinking behind Neighborhood Market and the experimental small version of the concept scheduled to debut in the Phoenix area. His comments came during a press conference held after the company's shareholders meeting Friday.

According to Castro-Wright, the company has spent the past 18 months looking at ways to improve the Neighborhood format so that it appeals to different customer segments at different shopping occasions. He added that the store would be smaller than the current Neighborhood Market that averages about 30,000 square feet of selling space and it will have a product assortment focused on fresh categories and consumables.

"The intent is to capture more of the quick-trip customers that would shop at supercenters for stocking up, but shop weekly to fill immediate needs in the areas fresh and consumables," Castro-Wright. "It is a neighborhood market."

Wal-Mart executives described a similar strategy when the original Neighborhood Market was introduced in the fall of 1998. The goal then was to offer a convenient alternative for consumers looking to stock up on a few items between their regular trips to a supercenter.

Castro-Wright did not specify the size of the new stores or offer a date when they would open, although the company has recently begun recruiting employees in the Phoenix area to staff the new stores.