Summit County Citizens Voice

Wal-Mart has been adding organic products to its line as it expands grocery selections in stores around the country. PHOTO COURTESY WAL-MART.

Target’s expanded grocery will debut June 6; Wal-Mart will double the size of its food section and remodel the entire store by July 30

By Bob Berwyn

SUMMIT COUNTY — Local residents will soon find expanded grocery shopping options, as both the Frisco Wal-Mart and Target, in Silverthorne, make major store changes to add more food to their selections.

Both stores are in the midst of remodeling to accommodate the changes. Target plans to unveil its expanded grocery section June 6, while Wal-Mart is aiming for a July 30 date to roll out a grocery section that will be double the current size, according to store manager Steve Nail.

The new Target selections will include some produce and meat, according to an assistant store manager, who said during a telephone interview that company policy doesn’t allow her to give out her name. The store’s expanded grocery section will have 40 aisles of food, up from the existing 14 aisles.

The produce will include fruit and vegetable staples like bananas, apples, pineapples, oranges and celery. Cereal, bread and pasta selections will also be expanded significantly, she said. The store won’t be adding a huge selection of organic products. A Boulder Target is currently doing a similar remodel, and that location will add more organics, because of the higher demand in that location, the assistant manager said.

Wal-Mart won’t offer produce or meat, but will double the size of the frozen food and dairy sections, Nail said.

The overall goal is to add enough items so that shoppers can put together an entire meal from the store’s food section. The changes at Wal-Mart also include a top-to-bottom remodel in the entire store, starting with fixtures and ending with new flooring, he said.

Read more about the national strategies and economic background of expanded grocery operations at Wal-Mart and Target after the break …

Some departments will change location in the store, and some household items are moving closer to the new food section.

The store will lose its selection of fabric bolts, which has been a concern to local crafters. But Nail said the rest of that section, including threads, buttons and other sewing paraphernalia, will remain intact.

Nationally, Target operates 1,740 stores in 49 states, with no stores in Vermont. A typical Target store stocks about 80,000 items. Adding more groceries is a reaction to recession-hit consumers cutting back on discretionary spending.

“People shop for food on the average 2.5 times per week,” said retail analyst Kevin Coupe, of MorningNewsBeat.com. “Frankly, they’re hoping to get more people in their stores and buy other stuff that’s more profitable while they’re there.”

Coupe said he also sees the move as a response to the drop in discretionary spending. He thinks companies like Target and Wal-Mart are betting that, even as the country climbs out of the economic hole, consumers will stick with more cautious spending habits for a few years to come.

In any case, the expansion in both stores will enhance competition on the local grocery scene, which is always a good thing for consumers.

“It will get competitive. And both will have to respond (to each other),” he said.

According to national retail analysts quoted in the Wall Street Journal, the move to groceries represents a bid to grow revenues in the highly competitive grocery business, which shows only a 3 to 5 percent profit margin for even the most efficient operators and requires high sales volumes to be profitable.

According to the Wall Street Journal story, the addition of mini-groceries inside existing stores have boosted food sales by 50 percent in some test stores. Most of the produce items come wrapped in plastic with a bar code, which may not be environmentally friendly, but reduces the need for special handling.

Adding produce generally requires additional labor and costs more to store and stock.

Target first started expanding into groceries in 1995 when it started building super stores. The more recent move came as one of the company’s largest shareholders pushed to make Target’s business less susceptible to economic cycles.

Target’s sales have been up and down in recent months, growing by 10.8 percent in March, but dropping 5.9 percent in April. Overall, sales at stores open for at least a year fell by 2.9 percent in 2009.

Filed under: Frisco, Summit County Colorado, Summit County news Tagged: | business, economy, retail, shopping, Summit County Colorado, Summit County News, Target, Wal-Mart