ROGERS, Ark.-- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. opened a new Neighborhood Market last week in Rogers, Ark. The 36,464-square-foot store will carry a full line of groceries, including fresh produce, frozen foods, meat and dairy products and organic items. The deli offers hot rotisserie chicken, made-to-order sandwiches and pizza by the slice. An expanded deli area offers a variety of meats, cheeses and freshly prepared foods including a soup bar. Customers can pick up cakes, freshly made pastries and breads in the bakery.
The store also features a cafe with wireless Internet service [image-nocss] and Starbucks coffee. The store will be open from 5:00 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week.
It has a stucco facade and stained wood pergolas at the perimeter of the parking lot.
The new store will employ approximately 115 associates.
In addition to its 2,435 U.S. Supercenters, Wal-Mart also sells food at 128 Neighborhood Markets, a grocery format the company launched in 1998.
Henry Jordan, regional general manager and vice president for Wal-Mart, told Arkansas Business that the store has taken advantage of some ideas the retailer has learned through testing its smaller Marketside concept. Some of the signage in the deli contains a Marketside logo. On the exterior of the store the Neighborhood Market signage is now accompanied with the tag "by Walmart" along with the retailer's new "spark" logo.
Wal-Mart said in early June that it is not accelerating the test of its convenience store-sized grocery stores, called Marketside, given the economic climate. "We're pleased with it, but at this point in time given the current condition in the marketplace, with a significant reduction in demand...we are not accelerating that effort until we have better data to make a decision," Wal-Mart Vice Chairman Eduardo Castro-Wright told reporters after the retailer's annual meeting.
In October, Wal-Mart officially opened four Marketside stores in the Phoenix area. The stores seek to woo shoppers who are looking for ready-to-eat meals and fresh produce, and might not have time for a trip to a full-scale grocery store. Marketside stores are approximately 15,000 square feet, while Wal-Mart's supercenters average 187,000 square feet.
The Marketside test came after British grocer and rival Tesco opened Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Stores, c-store-like grocery stores, in the United States in late 2007.
Wal-Mart is changing the branding of its four Marketside stores. The Bentonville, Ark.-based company quietly changed the name and logo on the newest addition to its family of stores, now called "Marketside by Wal-Mart."
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