{"id":86,"date":"2012-09-10T20:15:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-11T00:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom.chainstoreguide.com\/2012\/09\/walmarts-dollar-store-envy-strikes-again\/"},"modified":"2012-09-10T20:15:00","modified_gmt":"2012-09-11T00:15:00","slug":"walmarts-dollar-store-envy-strikes-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/2012\/09\/walmarts-dollar-store-envy-strikes-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Walmart\u2019s Dollar Store Envy Strikes Again"},"content":{"rendered":"
Long before the incredible recession-era successes of dollar chains Walmart consistently revealed a strong case of dollar store envy.\u00a0 Target did as well but to a significantly lesser degree.Even as Walmart grew its traditional big box footprints to supercenter size, in order to advance to its current dominant status in the grocery world, the company found itself mimicked by its much smaller prototyped dollar store competition.\u00a0 While transitioning traditional Walmart stores to supercenters required considerably more real estate which resulted in even more costly conversions, dollar chains simply altered aisle space and allocations to accommodate additional groceries while gradually investing in freezers and refrigerators, requiring little to no additional real estate.<\/p>\n

As with Walmart, dollar stores saw the addition of perishables as well as expanded grocery sections as a means of attracting regular customers to visit stores more frequently while luring additional shoppers to the thrift-based general merchandising concept.\u00a0 As the recession hit, the thrift concept became even more popular and for many consumers a necessity.<\/p>\n

While Walmart\u2019s everyday low price reputation stood the company in good stead, especially during the early months of the recession, dollar stores eagerly pursued a clever and aggressive growth strategy. \u00a0\u00a0Maintaining the integrity of their traditional compact retail footprints, dollar chains eagerly expanded into typical neighborhood sites, often located in communities among the most economically challenged by the recession.\u00a0 This strategy took advantage of declining bargain-based real estate prices and gave the dollar retailers a firm loyalty within these newly targeted communities.<\/p>\n

As the recession wore on, Walmart experienced tepid to troubling financials domestically.\u00a0 Dollar chains, even to this most recent quarter, continued to grow at speeds that would be admirable in the best of economies.\u00a0 And here comes Walmart\u2019s envy again.<\/p>\n

In addition to maintaining compact and efficient footprints, dollar stores have increased their community credibility through dominance via neighborhood expansion.\u00a0 As the price of fuel rose greatly through the past two decades, Walmart overtly admired the growth of dollar store neighborhood locations and their attraction to consumers as a quick trip, both in terms of time needed to commute as well as a relatively short in-store trek to fully cover the diversity of goods dollar stores have to offer.<\/p>\n

Walmart has never been able to steer clear of its admiration for the many competitive aspects of the dollar store economic model.\u00a0 Last year the world\u2019s largest retailer introduced a concept that many thought to be Walmart\u2019s answer to the dollar store.\u00a0 The rapid rollout of nearly a dozen Walmart Express locations was seen as a call to mimic the incredibly rapid expansion of top dollar store chains.\u00a0 At 15,000 sq. feet the typical Walmart Express was clearly far bigger than typical dollar store competition.\u00a0 That footprint could be comparatively prohibitive to entry in many costly urban real estate settings.<\/p>\n

Early this year however Walmart quietly halted additional Express openings.\u00a0 Recently the Express location in Chicago was shuttered as its one-year lease expired.\u00a0 While Walmart had initially claimed this Express location would serve to supplement sales at its nearby big box, many felt the Express location served more to cannibalize from its nearby big brother.\u00a0 At best the Express concept was always essentially a work in progress as early on Walmart boldly looked to customers for merchandising suggestions. Signs throughout the stores featured comments such as \u2018If you want it, we’ll get it\u2019.<\/p>\n

Despite the apparent back burner position of the future of the Express format, Walmart continues to pine for dollar store-like attributes and success.\u00a0 The company\u2019s latest move to emulate a dollar store paradigm is a project called Dollar $tation.\u00a0 Actual Dollar $tations have been referred to as dollar stores in a box.<\/p>\n

A recent article referred to Dollar $tations as Walmart\u2019s attempt to take on Dollar Tree.\u00a0 Dollar $tations are essentially dark green scored heavy cardboard bins, placed strategically on pallets to offer a variety of unrelated \u2018impulse\u2019 items.\u00a0 These offerings can change from day to day and don\u2019t represent any particular theme other than products being offered for a dollar.\u00a0 Bins are currently located at the discretion of local store management.<\/p>\n

During a series of recent store visits I noticed that in one store the Dollar $tation was located near consumer electronics, in another the Dollar $tation was situated in an impromptu aisle at the front of a supercenter.\u00a0 Nearby were several other similar looking bins of varied colors, offering themed items designed to sell at bargain prices.\u00a0 One offered clearance items at 50% off.\u00a0 Another offered mostly HBC type items, each for eighty eight cents.\u00a0 Another offered a neat assortment of kitchen utensils for $1.88 each.\u00a0 Most of these utensils are similarly available at a nearby Dollar Tree for $1 as part of a far greater kitchen dollar selection.<\/p>\n

Dollar $tation bins are overstuffed with a disparate variety of items, many meant for children.\u00a0 Batman and Spiderman products were among those designed to introduce children to drawing and painting.\u00a0 Puzzles and thin puzzle books abounded for both children and adults.\u00a0 There were a few plastic simple toys featured alongside adult oddities such as a six-pack of \u201cLas Vegas\u2019 style dice.\u00a0 In many cases the nearby bargain bins were easier to navigate and offered better prices or values.<\/p>\n

This project is reminiscent of Target\u2019s dollar bin initiative which began several years ago as a set-in place dollar section strategically situated near the front entrance.\u00a0 Metal pronged \u2018dollar\u2019 bins offered contents pegged to sell for a dollar.\u00a0 These bins were initially highly publicized.<\/p>\n

Based on their longevity, they were able to attract a fair share of visitors entering Target locations.\u00a0 Due to their location, they were almost impossible to miss and early on I noticed them as much due to the number shoppers curiously investigating their contents for dollar bargains.\u00a0 This crowd of dollar bargain hunters has shrunk with time as either the novelty wore off or the products were not sufficiently inspiring shoppers.<\/p>\n

After a while the bins began to include items at slightly higher price points and eventually lost their distinction as an actual dollar venue.\u00a0 Currently this section is titled, \u201c$1 Happy Bargains $1\u2019 with most bins offering contents for one dollar while several offer varying contents for $2.50.\u00a0 Offerings feature seasonal hopefuls which now revolve around Halloween.\u00a0 Staples include a number of snack foods including candy and chips.\u00a0 During a recent visit many bins were empty which means that either sales are extremely brisk or the concept is largely overlooked though located in a prime traffic area.<\/p>\n

Dollar Tree and its dollar retailing competitors continue to heavily invest in new locations while fine tuning product selection with an eye toward increasing customer visits with a comprehensive variety of groceries and its usual \u2018treasure hunt\u2019 of new bargain items, all for one dollar.\u00a0 Meanwhile Walmart enviously quiets it Express initiative and rolls out cardboard bins to randomly offer impulse items which seem to lack much of a pulse.<\/p>\n

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Long before the incredible recession-era successes of dollar chains Walmart consistently revealed a strong case of dollar store envy.\u00a0 Target did as well but to a significantly lesser degree.Even as Walmart grew its traditional big box footprints to supercenter size, in order to advance to its current dominant status in the grocery world, the company… Continue reading Walmart\u2019s Dollar Store Envy Strikes Again<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"post-template-no-sidebar.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6,5],"class_list":["post-86","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discount-specialty","tag-csg-old","tag-insight","entry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}