Dive Brief:
- Wal-Mart is building a convenience stores in its headquarters town of
Bentonville, Ark., according to a report in the Northwest Arkansas Business
Journal. A spokesperson told the Journal that the plan is to "test and learn,"
and that no other stores are planned at this time.
- The store, to be located on a 2.01 acre site the intersection of Arkansas
Highway 102 and South Walton Boulevard, will open by spring and sell gasoline,
snacks and staples such as milk and eggs.
Dive Insight:
There are no other details available about Wal-Mart's new convenience-store
model. So anything we say here is based on conjecture. Nonetheless, there are
some things worth noting.
First, the new c-store appears to be much smaller than Wal-Mart's new Walmart
Express stores. Those operations run between 10,000 to 15,000 square feet.
Wal-Mart has also opened a number of what it calls
Walmart
Neighborhood Markets, which run around 50,000 square feet. We assume that
the new c-store is closer in scope to
a
traditional c-store model of 2,400 square feet.
Second, the convenience-store test probably does not represent a retreat from
the Walmart Express pilot program. Just weeks ago Wal-Mart expressed confidence
in that approach and told analysts it was
tweaking its logistics systems for the stores. More details on logistics and
Walmart's ideas about "ecosystems" and "tethering" as ways to move goods among
different-size stores
emerged
last month.
Recommended Reading:
Northwest Arkansas Business Journal:
Walmart building Bentonville C-store Convenience Store
News:
Walmart Building Its First Convenience Store for Test
Written by Paul Conley for FoodDive.com, original article can be located here:
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