The Lakeland ledger reports that Wal-Mart has opened its first Florida Neighborhood Market, a 40,000 sq. ft. store in Oviedo, a suburb of Orlando.
According to the story, “The Ledger did a price comparison between the Neighborhood Market and a Publix supermarket across Alafaya Trail in Oviedo. Among 12 common grocery items, the Neighborhood Market was cheaper on nine items, Publix was cheaper on two and the stores had the same price on one.” At least two more Neighborhood Markets are planned for Orlando, with Wal-Mart planning to then move west toward Tampa.
Which leads the paper to ask how Publix and other competitors will differentiate themselves in a Wal-Mart world.
According to the story, “The Ledger did a price comparison between the Neighborhood Market and a Publix supermarket across Alafaya Trail in Oviedo. Among 12 common grocery items, the Neighborhood Market was cheaper on nine items, Publix was cheaper on two and the stores had the same price on one.” At least two more Neighborhood Markets are planned for Orlando, with Wal-Mart planning to then move west toward Tampa.
Which leads the paper to ask how Publix and other competitors will differentiate themselves in a Wal-Mart world.
- KC's View:
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Good question. (Albeit one that Publix would probably not want to see posed in newspaper headlines…)
While in Dallas for MarkeTechnics, we visited a Neighborhood Market there. The first thing that we noticed was how many out of stocks there were…and then we realized that it was late Saturday afternoon, and the store had been picked over. It was that busy. The stockers couldn't keep up...which is a powerful message in itself.
To compete with that, you have to differentiate.
