Wal-Mart's new face

Wal-Mart's new face

The world's biggest retailer debuts an updated image in its Plano, Texas, Supercenter By Alison Embrey, Managing Editor

Alison Embrey, Managing Editor

June 1, 2006

On March 22, 2006, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. went where no Wal-Mart has ever gone before. No, the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer didn't move in and conquer yet another virgin marketplace. With the opening of its newest Supercenter in the Willow Bend area of Plano, Texas, Wal-Mart did accomplish one monumental feat—it paid attention to its design.

In the new 203,091-sq.-ft. Plano Supercenter, you won't find the white epoxy floors, cluttered aisles and chaotic merchandising that have come to be the Wal-Mart norm. What you will find is large-format departmental wayfinding signage and graphics, faux wood flooring in the apparel and home departments, curved gondolas in the grocery section—even a full organic foods section and gourmet wine selection. Welcome to the newest generation of Wal-Mart stores.

The Plano store is a work in progress of sorts, as the retailer is eager to see what concepts work and could possibly be rolled out to other stores. "With the opening of this store, Wal-Mart is adopting an active approach to understanding and meeting customer needs, particularly those of the female shopper," says John Fleming, Wal-Mart's executive vice president and chief marketing officer. "This store will function as an active laboratory for testing a range of new ideas and merchandise in a fully operational setting. If something doesn't work, we will change it and try something else. And when an innovation resonates with our customers, we will consider it in other stores."

The new upscale look of the Plano store begins outside with a two-toned brick exterior and tiered roofing enclaves. Three storefront entrances provide navigational direction to the shopper, who can now choose to enter via the "Market & Pharmacy," "Home & Living" or "Garden Center" doors.

Rather than flowing into one another without distinction, departments in the store are delineated with individualized large graphic banners in eight principal areas—home, apparel, health, beauty, food, do-it-yourself, electronics and baby. Each of the signage packages features a large photo representing the area, such as a large iron in the home section and giant lipstick tubes in the beauty department. The departments are also positioned in a more logical way, based on feedback Wal-Mart received from its female customers. Consumables, pet food and health and beauty aids, for example, are now adjacent to the grocery section.

The apparel area—marked by an overhead blue banner dubbed "fashion"—features a new, softer look. Honey wood flooring, multiheight gondolas and more space around displays for carts to fit through make the area more female-friendly. Two digital screens in the women's apparel area show advertising loops of new fashion lines, jewelry and beauty products. The fitting rooms were redesigned to offer more privacy and convenience, and a separate cashwrap allows customers shopping only for clothing to check out here, rather than at the storefront. In addition, at the customer's request, purchases can be steamed to remove any wrinkles before leaving the store.

New merchandising techniques utilized in the Plano store add to the heightened customer experience. In the sporting goods area, bicycles are displayed around a circular pedestal in the center of the aisle; in health and beauty, lighting banks above the top of the shelving units illuminate the colorful product; in the books and magazines section, wooden shelving units and an oversized graphic of an "open book" give an intimate bookstore appeal; in the shoe department, fashion-forward Metro7 and George shoes are displayed on attractive Lucite stands; and in the home section, tiered endcaps draw attention to an expanded selection of designer home products.

The store also promises a quieter shopping experience with fewer PA announcements, no in-store radio, quieter cash registers and directional Wal-Mart TV confined to specific areas of the store.

The grocery selection in the Plano store received a major revamp, with more than 2,000 new premium items in wine, dry grocery, meat, cheese and produce. An increased selection of gourmet cheeses and expanded offering of organic and natural foods graces the store shelves, with nearly 500 items added to the produce, deli, bakery, meat, seafood, dairy and frozen departments. A new Ready-To-Go Meals section, identified with large-format graphics of fresh food, offers home-meal replacement solutions, as well as a fresh sushi bar, made-to-order sandwiches and hot pizza. The store even includes a spacious and trendy locally owned and operated coffee shop called "Kicks Coffee Café," enabled with Wi-Fi access. A new wine section—merchandised on upscale wooden shelving units—features more than 1,200 selections, including 700 premium items specific to the Plano store.

The Plano store serves as a one-stop shopping express, complete with a Tire & Lube Express, vision center, portrait studio, one-hour photo lab, pharmacy with two drive-thru lanes, hair salon, nail salon, bank, Wal-Mart Connect Center and Hometown Threads (which provides custom embroidery services).

For the inquisitive Wal-Mart follower asking, "Why Plano?" the company has a simple, solution-based answer. "For something to work in Plano, it has to be good," says John Murphy, Wal-Mart's regional general manager. "Customers here are discerning, and I can't think of a better marketplace in which to test our most innovative thinking." The company opened its first 24-hour pharmacies in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and also ran the pilot of its Walmart.com site-to-store delivery service there. The company's first experimental "green" Supercenter also opened last year in McKinney, Texas, about 20 miles north of Plano.

"Wal-Mart World: Perspectives on Plano Prototype," a report from Columbus, Ohio-based Retail Forward Inc., reads: "The new prototype store in Plano, Texas, introduces a number of format, merchandising and product initiatives that represent a dramatic departure from what typically is found in a Wal-Mart Supercenter," the report reads. "In some areas, including health and beauty care and grocery, the changes will likely shift shoppers' perceptions and behaviors in Wal-Mart's favor. In other departments, including apparel and home, changes are largely superficial and will benefit from further development. However, from front to back, inside and out, the retailer is moving toward a next-generation Supercenter that surely will capture plenty of attention and quite possibly a larger share of shopper wallet."