The Dallas Morning News reports that Wal-Mart could become the market leader in food sales in that city within a year, using both supercenters and Neighborhood Markets to shove aside the likes of Kroger, Albertsons and Safeway’s Tom Thumb.
It would be the first time that Wal-Mart would become the biggest seller of groceries in a top 10 U.S. market.
The paper suggests that because Dallas is a) a major metropolitan area, and b) a place where Wal-Mart seems to be competing successfully in the food arena with the nation’s top three mainstream grocery companies, it could provide a blueprint for how Wal-Mart will exploit other markets throughout the US.
Kroger is fourth-ranked in Dallas, but actually increasing share, up to 14.2 percent from 13.5 percent, in part because of an acquisition of seven Winn-Dixie locations when that company left the market.
It would be the first time that Wal-Mart would become the biggest seller of groceries in a top 10 U.S. market.
The paper suggests that because Dallas is a) a major metropolitan area, and b) a place where Wal-Mart seems to be competing successfully in the food arena with the nation’s top three mainstream grocery companies, it could provide a blueprint for how Wal-Mart will exploit other markets throughout the US.
Kroger is fourth-ranked in Dallas, but actually increasing share, up to 14.2 percent from 13.5 percent, in part because of an acquisition of seven Winn-Dixie locations when that company left the market.
- KC's View:
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While clearly all these chains have to try to be competitive with Wal-Mart on price, it seems to us that equally important are their efforts to differentiate themselves in other areas, especially by catering to local interests and tastes.
Understanding local consumers and finding new and different ways to appeal to them -- and their imaginations -- seems like an absolute mandate these days. It can’t be lip service, and it can’t be desultory; it has to be strategic, focused, relentless and, above all, inventive and imaginative.
