Discount tire center

TAMPA, Fla. -- Pharmacy and health and beauty care take center stage at a new Wal-Mart urban supercenter prototype aimed at increasing the format's convenience factor and growth potential.

To achieve those goals, Wal-Mart blended attributes from a 200,000-squarefoot supercenter with those from a 40,000-square-foot Neighborhood Market to create a hybrid concept referred to internally at Wal-Mart as the urban 99 proto. As the name implies, this 99,000-square-foot store that opened last month at 8220 N. Dale Mabry Highway here is designed to serve densely populated markets where the lack of real estate has prevented Wal-Mart from building larger stores. Its newest prototype occupies just 10 acres of land or roughly half the amount needed for a large supercenter. Although that is a considerable reduction in the real estate requirement for a supercenter, it remains well above the approximate acre and a half Walgreens or CVS require to build a typical store.

Even so, customers at Wal-Mart's new supercenter might think they are visiting a drug store. That's because Wal-Mart added a dual-lane drive-through pharmacy to the right side of the building where the store's single entrance is located. Upon entering the store, it is clear to shoppers that there is an emphasis on pharmacy and health and beauty care. Those departments, as well as a vision center, are located immediately inside the entrance where Wal-Mart has created a drug store within the store. Every customer, whether they were motivated to visit the store to buy clothes or food, passes through the drug store departments.

One notable exception is the photo lab. Wal-Mart has long favored locating this department at the rear of its stores, and it stuck with that positioning in the urban prototype. However, the photo lab was given a new wrinkle in that it was combined with a cellular telephone service department in a bullpen configuration at the rear of the store between the refrigerated foods and home entertainment departments.

Aside from the highly visible emphasis on convenience, pharmacy and health and beauty care, the urban prototype remains true to its food and general merchandise roots with a heavy dose of Neighborhood Market sprinkled in. For example, the presentation of food, perishables and deli bears a striking resemblance to Neighborhood Market, a situation explained by the fact that former senior vice president of Neighborhood Market, Ed Kolodzieski, was involved in the store's creation prior to his recent promotion to chief operating officer of Wal-Mart International. A key Neighborhood Market influence was the addition of a Grab It and Go coffee and pastry area where customers pay on the honor system.

The supercenter influence is most evident on the general merchandise side of the store. The product mix is nearly identical to a supercenter, with regional and divisional Wal-Mart executives in attendance at the store's Jan. 21 grand opening reporting a minimal reduction of SKUs and categories. Notably absent are a Tire and Lube Express department, leased areas across the front of the store and a food service component. Most supercenters house a snack bar or McDonalds restaurant.

In addition to the changes related to core drug store categories, there were other hew merchandising features and operational-oriented changes related to the market the store serves and to its reduced size.

For example, extensive merchandising of Hispanic-oriented products can be found throughout the store in the food, hardline and softline categories. Wal-Mart further caters to Tampa's Hispanic residents with signs in English and Spanish, including those in the pharmacy.

The holding capacity of fixtures also was increased to improve the likelihood of being in-stock. Apparel fixtures were modified, gondola shelves were lengthened to 22 inches from 16 inches, and the depth of freezer cases was increased to 34 inches.

Wal-Mart also saved space by constructing a 6,000-square-foot mezzanine level at the rear of the store with space for offices, training and an employee break area. This area also functions as a stockroom and storage area for layaway merchandise and is accessed by a freight elevator and a specially designed lift for the lay-away department.

Because the efficient use of space was a significant consideration in the design of the store, planners also reduced the size of fixtures, such as the jewelry display case, the sporting goods bullpen and the fabric cutting table. Outside, in the small lawn and garden department, space was saved by stacking palletized landscape materials vertically in steel racks similar to those commonly seen at Home Depot and Lowe's.

While Wal-Mart has attempted to replicate the supercenter shopping experience in a format half the size, customers may not like some of the changes made to achieve that goal. In some hardline and consumables departments, aisles have been narrowed to the point where shoppers will have to exercise caution when passing each other with carts. In the apparel departments, shorter customers may find it difficult to access garments hung from the top of grid wall fixtures. The store's single entrance also may be an issue--its location on the far right side of the store forces customers to shop the store in a way other than they might choose if given the option of entering the building on the side where food is merchandised.

It is doubtful these issues will prevent residents near the store from shopping at this new Wal-Mart, as they currently have few nearby options for food and general merchandise at the prices Wal-Mart offers. That is a situation in which many urban residents find themselves, which helps explain why Wal-Mart developed an urban prototype concept. If successful, the format will create expansion opportunities in urban areas where suitable real estate is difficult to find and often requires the demolition of existing structures or the assembly of several parcels. That makes it virtually impossible for Wal-Mart to build a typical, single level supercenter in the 180,000-square-foot to 200,000-square-foot range, being as those units require between 20 and 25 acres.

"In densely populated urban areas, finding any developable real estate is difficult, but finding 10 acres would be exponentially easier than finding 20 acres, said Andy Weiner, president of Weiner Development Corp., a Houston-based developer that has developed Wal-Mart-anchored power centers.

In addition to using the small format to target new growth, Weiner believes the concept also could be applied to existing discount stores that Wal-Mart is unable to expand into supercenters.

"An urban prototype adds to a set of options that Wal-Mart has to manage its real estate assets and allows them the possibility of converting existing discount stores to supercenters where the returns generated by the conversion. justify, the capital investment associated with the project, Weiner said.

That certainly could be the case in Tampa, where the urban prototype is located equidistant between two mature discount stores three miles apart. Both stores are in great locations, though neither is capable of being expanded to a large-format supercenter.