MESA ARIZ. —As the world’s largest retailer takes direct aim at competing restaurants in unflattering TV ads, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. also is launching a new retail concept featuring prepared meals that the discount giant has projected could grow to a 1,000-location system.
At least four Marketside stores are being developed in the Phoenix area as part of a pilot project by Wal-Mart, whose televised ads, debuted during coverage of the Beijing Olympics, slammed pizza restaurants as offering products costing nearly double the $8 price of take-and-bake pizzas from Walmart stores. —As the world’s largest retailer takes direct aim at competing restaurants in unflattering TV ads, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. also is launching a new retail concept featuring prepared meals that the discount giant has projected could grow to a 1,000-location system.
The Marketside format—smaller than big-box Walmarts but still planned as 10,000-to-15,000-square-foot grocery and ready-to-eat operations—looms as perhaps the most overt threat yet to restaurants from the supermarket sector’s service delis, in-store eateries and newer prepared-meal offerings. —As the world’s largest retailer takes direct aim at competing restaurants in unflattering TV ads, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. also is launching a new retail concept featuring prepared meals that the discount giant has projected could grow to a 1,000-location system.
“There’s no question that the retailers are attacking the restaurant industry,” said foodservice consultant Ron Paul, president and chief executive of Chicago-based Technomic Inc., “and they are taking away growth, particularly from the casual-diners. That’s where they are very vulnerable.” —As the world’s largest retailer takes direct aim at competing restaurants in unflattering TV ads, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. also is launching a new retail concept featuring prepared meals that the discount giant has projected could grow to a 1,000-location system.
In its recently begun ads attacking restaurants, Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart promoted its Sam’s Choice-brand take-and-bake pizzas as more economical. The spots, backed up by an NPD Group study, claim that a family that eats pizza once a week could save $312 a year by consuming pizza from Walmarts instead of from quick-service chains and pizzerias. —As the world’s largest retailer takes direct aim at competing restaurants in unflattering TV ads, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. also is launching a new retail concept featuring prepared meals that the discount giant has projected could grow to a 1,000-location system.
A Wal-Mart spokeswoman said the four Marketside stores being opened in suburban Phoenix this fall will offer “easy meal solutions” and “quick grocery trip” items. —As the world’s largest retailer takes direct aim at competing restaurants in unflattering TV ads, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. also is launching a new retail concept featuring prepared meals that the discount giant has projected could grow to a 1,000-location system.
As a chain concept separate from Wal-Mart’s 3,400 U.S. big-box stores, Marketside will not carry the Walmart brand on its signage. The first store, in Mesa, is going into a former Osco Drug location. —As the world’s largest retailer takes direct aim at competing restaurants in unflattering TV ads, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. also is launching a new retail concept featuring prepared meals that the discount giant has projected could grow to a 1,000-location system.
The concept’s website,
Wal-Mart isn’t the first retailer to go after take-home diners. —As the world’s largest retailer takes direct aim at competing restaurants in unflattering TV ads, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. also is launching a new retail concept featuring prepared meals that the discount giant has projected could grow to a 1,000-location system.
“Whole Foods and Publix, to name two chains, have basically targeted the restaurant industry to get business away from, especially in takeout,” Paul said. “What consumers are looking for is something very close to restaurant quality. That’s the gold standard. That means fresh, flavorful and matching up appeal and menu offerings with what restaurants offer.” —As the world’s largest retailer takes direct aim at competing restaurants in unflattering TV ads, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. also is launching a new retail concept featuring prepared meals that the discount giant has projected could grow to a 1,000-location system.
Paul said the consumer market for “retail meal solutions,” or RMS, totals about $34 billion annually, including beverages, or $25 billion excluding beverages. Growth in RMS concepts is expected to top 8 percent in each of the next three years. —As the world’s largest retailer takes direct aim at competing restaurants in unflattering TV ads, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. also is launching a new retail concept featuring prepared meals that the discount giant has projected could grow to a 1,000-location system.
According to Technomic, over the past five years RMS growth has been strongest within non-supermarket channels, such as supercenters and warehouse clubs. —As the world’s largest retailer takes direct aim at competing restaurants in unflattering TV ads, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. also is launching a new retail concept featuring prepared meals that the discount giant has projected could grow to a 1,000-location system.
Beyond the current pilot program of drug store conversions in the Phoenix suburbs of Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa and Tempe, Wal-Mart officially has no plans for further development of Marketside stores, which will boast green lettering, purple facades and natural wood finishes. However, at least one media report has said that other sites have been purchased for newly constructed Marketplace stores. And Wal-Mart, in job postings for the new concept, has said that more than 1,000 locations and more than $10 billion in yearly revenue are envisioned for the Marketside initiative. —As the world’s largest retailer takes direct aim at competing restaurants in unflattering TV ads, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. also is launching a new retail concept featuring prepared meals that the discount giant has projected could grow to a 1,000-location system.
Excluding such in-store eateries as Subway and McDonald’s, Wal-Mart’s proprietary snack bars generated U.S. foodservice sales of $375 million for the 12 months ended in January, according to Nation’s Restaurant News research. —As the world’s largest retailer takes direct aim at competing restaurants in unflattering TV ads, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. also is launching a new retail concept featuring prepared meals that the discount giant has projected could grow to a 1,000-location system.
Wal-Mart’s Marketside stores are expected to compete with Tesco’s 20 new Fresh & Easy smaller-footprint stores in Arizona. Other grocery chains are considering smaller, neighborhood markets as well. —As the world’s largest retailer takes direct aim at competing restaurants in unflattering TV ads, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. also is launching a new retail concept featuring prepared meals that the discount giant has projected could grow to a 1,000-location system.
Wal-Mart’s last such introduction was the 1998 debut of Wal-mart Neighborhood Markets, which average about 42,000 square feet. Typically, the standard Walmart discount stores cover 224,000 square feet; Wal-mart Supercenters are about 261,000 square feet. —As the world’s largest retailer takes direct aim at competing restaurants in unflattering TV ads, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. also is launching a new retail concept featuring prepared meals that the discount giant has projected could grow to a 1,000-location system.
Paul said Technomic’s researchers were “very bullish on the ‘Honey, I Shrunk Whole Foods’ category.” However, he warned that “if they really want to get restaurant dollars, they have to work on the prepared foods. Consumers do not consider frozen food in the same category,” he added. “It has to be ready to heat or ready to eat.” —As the world’s largest retailer takes direct aim at competing restaurants in unflattering TV ads, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. also is launching a new retail concept featuring prepared meals that the discount giant has projected could grow to a 1,000-location system.
The Fresh & Easy and Marketside formats offer easier access and a quicker buying experience for consumers, Paul said. “Tesco has everything coming from a commissary. There’s nothing in the store that really says ‘fresh-fresh’ like at, say, Whole Foods.” —As the world’s largest retailer takes direct aim at competing restaurants in unflattering TV ads, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. also is launching a new retail concept featuring prepared meals that the discount giant has projected could grow to a 1,000-location system.
“Starting from scratch, like Wal-Mart and Tesco are doing, is something that the convenience-store industry never learned,” Paul added. The new grocery-meal concepts “really are nothing more than convenience stores, but they don’t have the image of tobacco and Playboy magazines, lottery tickets and gasoline.” —As the world’s largest retailer takes direct aim at competing restaurants in unflattering TV ads, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. also is launching a new retail concept featuring prepared meals that the discount giant has projected could grow to a 1,000-location system.
Paul added: “There’s a big need in the marketplace for reinventing, in a sense, convenience stores. A traditional C-store doesn’t have the image of quality, fresh and prepared foods.” —As the world’s largest retailer takes direct aim at competing restaurants in unflattering TV ads, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. also is launching a new retail concept featuring prepared meals that the discount giant has projected could grow to a 1,000-location system.
Restaurateurs have tried similar projects in the past, such as Brinker International’s onetime investment in Eatzi’s. The high-style grocery and prepared-meals chain was reduced to one location in Dallas when its Chicago branch closed abruptly last November. The concept’s founder, Phil Romano, owns the Dallas location. —As the world’s largest retailer takes direct aim at competing restaurants in unflattering TV ads, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. also is launching a new retail concept featuring prepared meals that the discount giant has projected could grow to a 1,000-location system.
As a chain, “Eatzi’s didn’t make it because it was a narrow offering,” Paul said. “It almost had to be a complete destination. They were less than a carry-out restaurant, and they were less than a supermarket. If you wanted any staples, you had to go somewhere else,” Paul said. —As the world’s largest retailer takes direct aim at competing restaurants in unflattering TV ads, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. also is launching a new retail concept featuring prepared meals that the discount giant has projected could grow to a 1,000-location system.
While working on the Marketside debut, Wal-Mart is maintaining pressure on restaurants through its value-driven promotion of pizzas from the Walmart Neighborhood Market outlets and Sam’s Club discount warehouses. —As the world’s largest retailer takes direct aim at competing restaurants in unflattering TV ads, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. also is launching a new retail concept featuring prepared meals that the discount giant has projected could grow to a 1,000-location system.
The August “Take and Bake” television commercials said ordering a restaurant pizza usually costs $14, while those from Wal-Mart’s outlets cost only $8. The price comparison was based on an NPD study conducted in July. According to Wal-Mart, the $14 price is the mean price per pizza when pizzas are ordered from a fast-food restaurant or pizzeria. —As the world’s largest retailer takes direct aim at competing restaurants in unflattering TV ads, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. also is launching a new retail concept featuring prepared meals that the discount giant has projected could grow to a 1,000-location system.