Food Retailing in the USA: Wal-Mart Opens the First of its new 'Hispanic Community' Format Stores Today in Texas

As we've reported in Fresh & Easy Buzz, Wal-Mart, the world's largest corporation and retailer--as well as being the number one food and grocery market share retailer in the U.S.--has developed a small-format grocery store concept of its own, similar to Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA.

The new Wal-Mart small-format food and grocery store--the first units of which are set to open this summer in the Phoenix, Arizona Metropolitan region where Tesco currently has 18 of its Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market stores open and operating--will be an approximately 15,000 -to- 20,000 square foot grocery store featuring a mix of basic food and grocery items at low prices, along with an assortment of fresh, prepared foods items under at least one and possibly two new Wal-Mart store brands.

But the small-format Marketside isn't the only new food and grocery store format the U.S-based international retailer has created.

Today, in the Texas city of Garland, Wal-Mart is opening its first "Hispanic Community" store. That store is in a converted Wal-Mart Supercenter that was the retailer's very first Supercenter prototype (called Hypermart USA when it opened in 1987) in the world.

Wal-Mart's "Hispanic Community" store is designed to target and cater to Hispanic consumers. It includes aisles of authentic Mexican, Latin and Central American fresh food and packaged grocery products, perishables and non-foods, among other features geared to Hispanic consumers and shoppers.

The 100,000 thousand-plus square foot store also is designed and merchandised to celebrate the centrality of the family, which is an important aspect in the lives of Hispanic Americans.

The food and grocery industry publication Natural~Specialty Foods Memo has a piece today in which it describes the ethnic retailing format and the new "Hispanic Community" store opening today in Garland, Texas.

The piece also looks at Wal-Mart's emergence as a multi-format and niche-oriented retailer.

Read the piece about Wal-Mart's new "Hispanic Community" store format and the store opening today in Texas here.