Walmart 2001 Annual Report Download - page 6

THIS STORE IS
YOUR STORE
Wal-Mart has
taken individualized assortment
to a new level with its Store of the
Community initiative. The Store
of the Community is not a new line
of stores, but rather an exciting
model for existing Wal-Mart discount
stores and Supercenters to meet the
shopping needs of local store
Customers. Introduced in fiscal 2001,
these stores are specifically tailored
to mirror the demographic makeup
of their respective communities.
“The one-size-fits-all concept simply
doesn’t work anymore in the retail
industry. Customers tell us what they
want and it is our responsibility to
meet those needs,” Tom Coughlin,
President & CEO of the Wal-Mart
Stores Division, said.
The Store of the Community is
stocked based on a combination of
consumer purchasing data, area
demographics, customer preferences
and input from our store Associates.
Evaluating the buying patterns of
Customers enables Wal-Mart buyers
to determine what is selling best at
each store and purchase
merchandise based on each
store’s data.
All store managers, including
general managers and department
managers, submit yearly surveys,
which include information such
as when little league baseball or
a hunting season begins in their
community. This specific data is
invaluable for developing a Store
of the Community. For example,
a Wal-Mart store located near
a hospital may need a larger
pharmacy area. Stores close to
recreational bodies of water stock
life vests and fishing equipment not
carried in most land-locked stores.
Other stores offer regional sporting
goods. Softball leagues in Louisiana
would not know what to do with a
softball that is four inches larger in
diameter like those used in Chicago
and other urban areas.
In addition to obvious assortment
flexibility, the program also allows
seasonal start and end dates to be
determined by the needs of the
Customers and not by a store’s
particular geographic zone. For
example, turkey-hunting season
may extend longer in one state than
in an adjacent state. The Store of
the Community concept allows us to
tailor the first store’s assortment so
that it can display turkey
hunting merchandise until
the end of its season.
“Our store Associates live and work
in each store’s community and
interact with over 100 million
Customers each week. If we utilize
information from all available
resources including Customers,
Associates and suppliers, our store
will reflect the interests of its
community. We will sell merchandise
the Customers want to buy, not
merchandise we want to sell. By
accomplishing this goal, we create
happy, satisfied
Customers because
they can
now
complete
all of their
shopping
in one
location,
our store,”
Coughlin
added.
The detailed knowledge of a
community created by the
Customer/Associate partnership
allows each store to differentiate
department size, shelf-space
allocation and departmental
adjacencies. The result is a more
efficient distribution of inventory by
stocking our stores based on
customer preferences rather than
standardized assortments. It also
increases sales, reduces markdowns
and lowers inventory investment in
the system. Most of all, it keeps
Customers coming back into our
stores because we’re attentive to
their needs.
THIS STORE IS
YOUR STORE