Walmart has rolled out a new look at five flagship stores, including its big-box store in Teterboro, NJ. The remodeled stores have brighter lighting, mannequins and roomier aisles.
Melissa Repko | CNBC
As Walmart‘s low-priced groceries attract shoppers, the retailer is rolling out a fresh strategy aimed at wooing them into other aisles: stores with brighter lights, fashion-forward mannequins and colorful displays of makeup, pet supplies and more.
The big-box retailer, known for competing with value, has turned five of its SuperCenters into flagship stores with the remodeled look. They are located in Teterboro and North Bergen in New Jersey; Yaphank, New York; Quakertown, Pennsylvania.; and Hodgkins, Illinois. All of the flagships have debuted in the past three months — with North Bergen and Teterboro opening in mid-January.
And at least one more is on the way soon: A remodel of the store in Secaucus, New Jersey, is set for next month.
Walmart’s snazzier look is part of a broader effort to sell more discretionary items — like jeans, lipstick and baby strollers — that usually carry a higher profit margin than groceries. Last summer, it tested the sleeker model at one of its big-box stores in Springdale, Arkansas, a close drive from its corporate headquarters.
Alvis Washington, Walmart’s vice president of marketing, store design, innovation and experience, said it was time to bring the look to other markets after getting positive feedback in Arkansas. In company surveys, he said nearly every shopper said the store’s displays and mannequins encouraged them to browse longer.
“They appreciate the fact that we’re still true to who we are as Walmart,” he said. “Great prices. But then also we now have these new brands that we’re actually showcasing in inspirational ways.”
Walmart’s new store design includes displays that show off how a customer could decorate a nursery or kitchen. The displays also include a QR code that pulls up more merchandise on Walmart’s website.
Melissa Repko | CNBC
The company is remodeling the stores — and riffing off some store features of rival Target — at a time when more high-income households are shopping at the retail giant. In the past two quarters, about 75% of its market share gains in food have come from households that make more than $100,000 a year, according to Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey.
Those shoppers could become a fresh audience for Walmart’s exclusive brands, such as a style and value-oriented activewear brand, Love & Sports, developed with fashion designer Michelle Smith and SoulCycle instructor Stacey Griffith, and a kitchen and home decor line called Beautiful, which was developed with Drew Barrymore. It also has an assortment of clothing from national brands, such as Levi Strauss, Wrangler and Reebok.
“They were kind of a one-trick pony,” said Scott Mushkin, a retail analyst and CEO of R5 Capital. “They were always about price and what they’re now doing is, yes, they still lead on price. But…