WalMart dropping Wild Oats organic roducts

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klkla
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WalMart dropping Wild Oats organic roducts

Post by klkla »

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/wal-ma ... eid=yhoof2

"The world’s largest retailer has unwound a complicated deal with private-equity firm Yucaipa Cos. that allowed it to sell Wild Oats pasta sauces, cereals and other shelf stable products, the people said. The products will disappear from Wal-Mart shelves in coming months, they added."

Is Yucaipa completely out of the grocery industry now?
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Re: WalMart dropping Wild Oats organic roducts

Post by veteran+ »

I was surprised that Walmart was still selling Wild Oats products after Fresh & Easy went bye bye, but then I thought maybe the contract was protected between W/O (Yucaipa) and Walmart or it simply was taking so long for the product to sell (Wild Oats products did Not sell very well at all at Walmart).

I was informed that Walmart struck a deal with Yucaipa to further reduce the cost of the product and they would continue selling it at their stores until the warehouse was empty.

I suspect that Yucaipa has not been producing new inventory even before Fresh & Easy was finished (they stopped fresh production weeks before the stores started to go dark). I'm told that Yucaipa has very little inventory left and maybe this is why Walmart is dropping the line.

Any small residual inventory will probably go to Grocery Outlet.
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Re: WalMart dropping Wild Oats organic roducts

Post by pseudo3d »

veteran+ wrote:I was surprised that Walmart was still selling Wild Oats products after Fresh & Easy went bye bye, but then I thought maybe the contract was protected between W/O (Yucaipa) and Walmart or it simply was taking so long for the product to sell (Wild Oats products did Not sell very well at all at Walmart).

I was informed that Walmart struck a deal with Yucaipa to further reduce the cost of the product and they would continue selling it at their stores until the warehouse was empty.

I suspect that Yucaipa has not been producing new inventory even before Fresh & Easy was finished (they stopped fresh production weeks before the stores started to go dark). I'm told that Yucaipa has very little inventory left and maybe this is why Walmart is dropping the line.

Any small residual inventory will probably go to Grocery Outlet.
The Wild Oats line seemed incredibly out of place at Walmart, and I just can't imagine that Walmart customers would really be the people to go for organic brands. It was never really marketed all that well, either.
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Re: WalMart dropping Wild Oats organic roducts

Post by storewanderer »

I don't think it was ever sold in all Wal Marts, either. I think it was only in certain locations. I have noticed a few different grocery merchandising sets at the Wal Mart Supercenters just in Nevada and some stores had these items, others did not.

Wal Mart's merchandising/mix is more tailored to stores and regions than the company is given credit for. Yes they are lousy at fresh departments (though not as bad as Super Target) but on dry goods they don't do such a bad job.

This was one of those moves Wal Mart made to try and improve its reputation and get the people who hate the company so much to stop bashing them. Sort of like opening up in Oakland and Los Angeles and having to shut down this did not work either and the result is Wal Mart needs to be happy as the cash cow it is and not try to be all things to all people. There will always be people who hate them no matter how many organic foods they offer or how many times they raise their wages. These people will not set foot in a Wal Mart Store regardless of what Wal Mart does but they have all the time in the world to bash the company.
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Re: WalMart dropping Wild Oats organic roducts

Post by architect »

storewanderer wrote:I don't think it was ever sold in all Wal Marts, either. I think it was only in certain locations. I have noticed a few different grocery merchandising sets at the Wal Mart Supercenters just in Nevada and some stores had these items, others did not.

Wal Mart's merchandising/mix is more tailored to stores and regions than the company is given credit for. Yes they are lousy at fresh departments (though not as bad as Super Target) but on dry goods they don't do such a bad job.

This was one of those moves Wal Mart made to try and improve its reputation and get the people who hate the company so much to stop bashing them. Sort of like opening up in Oakland and Los Angeles and having to shut down this did not work either and the result is Wal Mart needs to be happy as the cash cow it is and not try to be all things to all people. There will always be people who hate them no matter how many organic foods they offer or how many times they raise their wages. These people will not set foot in a Wal Mart Store regardless of what Wal Mart does but they have all the time in the world to bash the company.
Not only were the Wild Oats products only sold in certain locations, they weren't even carried in the locations which would be most logical based on demographics. For example, in Tyler, TX, the Walmart Supercenter on South Broadway (in the primary commercial hub of Tyler and the highest-end area of town) did not carry any Wild Oats products. However, another location at West Loop 323 and Highway 64 did, in a lower-income area that is largely Hispanic-dominated. I have noticed similar idiosyncrasies in the DFW area. The only Walmarts in my area which have carried Wild Oats products are surprisingly in a couple of low-income areas, which several other stores with more favorable demographics have not carried them.
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Re: WalMart dropping Wild Oats organic roducts

Post by CalItalian »

Walmart's phasing out 'Price First' in private label revamp (in addition to Wild Oats). Moving organic to "Great Value" label.
http://supermarketnews.com/private-labe ... z4769VUO00
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Re: WalMart dropping Wild Oats organic roducts

Post by veteran+ »

storewanderer wrote:I don't think it was ever sold in all Wal Marts, either. I think it was only in certain locations. I have noticed a few different grocery merchandising sets at the Wal Mart Supercenters just in Nevada and some stores had these items, others did not.

Wal Mart's merchandising/mix is more tailored to stores and regions than the company is given credit for. Yes they are lousy at fresh departments (though not as bad as Super Target) but on dry goods they don't do such a bad job.

This was one of those moves Wal Mart made to try and improve its reputation and get the people who hate the company so much to stop bashing them. Sort of like opening up in Oakland and Los Angeles and having to shut down this did not work either and the result is Wal Mart needs to be happy as the cash cow it is and not try to be all things to all people. There will always be people who hate them no matter how many organic foods they offer or how many times they raise their wages. These people will not set foot in a Wal Mart Store regardless of what Wal Mart does but they have all the time in the world to bash the company.

There were 125 dry goods skus available to Walmart exclusively (Fresh & Easy had 25 fresh skus exclusively).

My experiences with Super Target have been awesome, including fresh. Where were these Super Targets located that were so bad?

I am one of those people, LOL, that has not stepped into a Walmart (and never will) since 1981 (when my Mom worked there). There is so much verifiable and empirical information for me to never go there again. And what they did to my Mom and other senior citizens......well, that was it.

:-)
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Re: WalMart dropping Wild Oats organic roducts

Post by architect »

veteran+ wrote:
storewanderer wrote:I don't think it was ever sold in all Wal Marts, either. I think it was only in certain locations. I have noticed a few different grocery merchandising sets at the Wal Mart Supercenters just in Nevada and some stores had these items, others did not.

Wal Mart's merchandising/mix is more tailored to stores and regions than the company is given credit for. Yes they are lousy at fresh departments (though not as bad as Super Target) but on dry goods they don't do such a bad job.

This was one of those moves Wal Mart made to try and improve its reputation and get the people who hate the company so much to stop bashing them. Sort of like opening up in Oakland and Los Angeles and having to shut down this did not work either and the result is Wal Mart needs to be happy as the cash cow it is and not try to be all things to all people. There will always be people who hate them no matter how many organic foods they offer or how many times they raise their wages. These people will not set foot in a Wal Mart Store regardless of what Wal Mart does but they have all the time in the world to bash the company.

There were 125 dry goods skus available to Walmart exclusively (Fresh & Easy had 25 fresh skus exclusively).

My experiences with Super Target have been awesome, including fresh. Where were these Super Targets located that were so bad?

I am one of those people, LOL, that has not stepped into a Walmart (and never will) since 1981 (when my Mom worked there). There is so much verifiable and empirical information for me to never go there again. And what they did to my Mom and other senior citizens......well, that was it.

:-)
Super Targets fall into two categories based on volume, due to cost cutting over the last few years. In high volume locations, bakery/deli is staffed during the majority of store hours, meat is packaged fresh on site, and some bakery items are even made fresh. In low volume locations, almost everything is prepackaged, and bakery/deli staffed hours are cut to the point that the store is essentially managed as an oversized PFresh. As a result, quality is wildly inconsistent between locations. In particular, the Atlanta region has become known for many of these low-volume Supers, most of which were built in the 2000's just prior to the housing crash, which heavily affected the region. 4-5 of these Atlanta-area Supers were supposedly up for closure a few years ago, and were only saved due to intense cost cutting. One of these locations is actually just down the street from a Kohl's which recently closed.

If Target wasn't so heavily invested in the Super Target format in certain markets (DFW being a prime example), the format would likely be killed off by now, at least according to industry sources. These stores are extremely difficult to run profitably due to their size and the expense of managing the fresh periemeter departments.
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Re: WalMart dropping Wild Oats organic roducts

Post by pseudo3d »

architect wrote:
veteran+ wrote:
storewanderer wrote:I don't think it was ever sold in all Wal Marts, either. I think it was only in certain locations. I have noticed a few different grocery merchandising sets at the Wal Mart Supercenters just in Nevada and some stores had these items, others did not.

Wal Mart's merchandising/mix is more tailored to stores and regions than the company is given credit for. Yes they are lousy at fresh departments (though not as bad as Super Target) but on dry goods they don't do such a bad job.

This was one of those moves Wal Mart made to try and improve its reputation and get the people who hate the company so much to stop bashing them. Sort of like opening up in Oakland and Los Angeles and having to shut down this did not work either and the result is Wal Mart needs to be happy as the cash cow it is and not try to be all things to all people. There will always be people who hate them no matter how many organic foods they offer or how many times they raise their wages. These people will not set foot in a Wal Mart Store regardless of what Wal Mart does but they have all the time in the world to bash the company.

There were 125 dry goods skus available to Walmart exclusively (Fresh & Easy had 25 fresh skus exclusively).

My experiences with Super Target have been awesome, including fresh. Where were these Super Targets located that were so bad?

I am one of those people, LOL, that has not stepped into a Walmart (and never will) since 1981 (when my Mom worked there). There is so much verifiable and empirical information for me to never go there again. And what they did to my Mom and other senior citizens......well, that was it.

:-)
Super Targets fall into two categories based on volume, due to cost cutting over the last few years. In high volume locations, bakery/deli is staffed during the majority of store hours, meat is packaged fresh on site, and some bakery items are even made fresh. In low volume locations, almost everything is prepackaged, and bakery/deli staffed hours are cut to the point that the store is essentially managed as an oversized PFresh. As a result, quality is wildly inconsistent between locations. In particular, the Atlanta region has become known for many of these low-volume Supers, most of which were built in the 2000's just prior to the housing crash, which heavily affected the region. 4-5 of these Atlanta-area Supers were supposedly up for closure a few years ago, and were only saved due to intense cost cutting. One of these locations is actually just down the street from a Kohl's which recently closed.

If Target wasn't so heavily invested in the Super Target format in certain markets (DFW being a prime example), the format would likely be killed off by now, at least according to industry sources. These stores are extremely difficult to run profitably due to their size and the expense of managing the fresh periemeter departments.
SuperTarget came on very late (mid-1990s) and they built even less of what Kmart did (Super Kmarts might have saved the company but they built too few and too far spread apart). Unlike Kmart, Target had money to actually invest in the company, but they STILL didn't exploit it too much, and by the time they actually got some going, the whole "Super" trend had fallen out of fashion somewhat.
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Re: WalMart dropping Wild Oats organic roducts

Post by storewanderer »

I was just in a Super Target last night in Charlotte, NC which seemed to be a pretty busy store but the fresh areas looked terrible. There was no staffing in bakery/deli at 7 PM. Produce was poorly merchandised and poorly rotated. The small bakery/deli was reasonably well stocked; the little 3 foot long service deli case was filthy and needed to be scrubbed clean. Dry grocery mix/pricing was good but it doesn't seem to be merchandised too well for the south. For instance, only one SKU of Yellow Rice in the place and virtually none of the fish fry/chicken breader/cornmeal items typically found in a southern supermarket. Pricing was strong as usual.

Super Target is also pretty heavy in Denver and Salt Lake City. That format may not have been overly successful (I felt Kmart executed supercenters better) but it did not help the situation any for Safeway in Denver or for Albertsons in Salt Lake City (likely Denver too). I think that format put significant hurt on Safeway in Denver.

This store shared an intersection with a Publix and Harris Teeter. Publix was the usual but also had a hot asian food bar, salad bar, and self checkout (these features seem to not exist in Florida), and the Harris Teeter was well above average in fresh.
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