The Brandon News

Walmart widening aisles and brightening stores in major overhaul

Wal-Mart Stores

By the time the five-year renovation project is done, more than 70 percent of Wal-Mart's 3,500 U.S. stores will undergo renovation.

By RICHARD MULLINS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 14, 2009

Updated: 08/14/2009 09:05 am

Wal-Mart vs. Target

Which store has the best everyday prices? Which store has the better overall shopping experience? Which store has better sales? Which store has better customer service? Which store has better parking?

TAMPA - Nice wide shopping aisles. No piles of merchandise or stand-up displays clogging your way. Brighter atmosphere.

This is a Walmart?

That's the reaction the world's biggest retailer wants you to have shopping, and it knows that's not always the case. So Walmart Stores Inc. is launching an immense renovation of U.S. stores to a new, cleaner, brighter, happier design.

Two Brandon locations and one in New Port Richey are among the first to get a rehab that shopping experts say was long overdue. By the time the five-year project is done, more than 70 percent of Walmart's 3,500 U.S. stores will undergo renovation. Any new stores will also feature the new design.

Walking into the retooled stores, shoppers shouldn't be surprised if the whole open and bright atmosphere is reminiscent of another major U.S. retailer.

"Target," said Casey Minton, president of the retail and shopping design firm Innovative Futures in Clearwater. That's not by accident, either, she said.

"Personally, I only go in a Walmart if I absolutely have to, and I'd so much rather go to Target," she said. "Walmarts have such a frenetic pace, too many people, too much stuff everywhere. I've abandoned my cart there, I felt so overwhelmed."

The psychology may seem superficial, Minton said, but it has a real impact on revenue.

Minton said she'd much rather stroll around a Target or other retailer that she says has a pleasant atmosphere – and she ends up spending more. Walmart would do well, she said, to use this store redesign to reach out to slightly higher income demographics and shoppers who focus on more than simply the lowest price possible.

Walmart gave the outlines of the redesign policy plan last autumn.

"A clean, open and bright new look in the stores including wider aisles with no product displays," company officials say. "Low profile shelving, bright interior paint schemes and lighting and easy to read signage to help customers find what they are looking for.

Some price signs in grocery areas, in fact, will have numbers more than a foot tall, visible and readable from across the store. Wood-motif fruit and vegetable racks will stand no taller than most people's shoulders, and roll on wheels for easy re-arranging.

The overall store layout will also change so the most popular products are more prominent – as opposed to the retail philosophy that forces customers to go through long aisles of discretionary purchases before they find staples they need most often.

One store in New Port Richey received the rehab, at 8745 State Road 54, and fully re-opened in July. A West Brandon location at 11110 Causeway Boulevard will have the new design as of Aug. 26. Another in Brandon at 949 East Bloomingdale Ave. complete renovations in mid-October.

Reporter Richard Mullins can be reached at (813) 259-7919.

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The Brandon News

Walmart widening aisles and brightening stores in major overhaul

Wal-Mart vs. Target