ROGERS, AR - Walmart has announced the rollout of its “fresh angle” format, currently in 180 of its stores, to about 3,300 locations by the end of this year.

“It's a huge priority for us because it's a big traffic driver and it's very important to our customers,” Steve Bratspies, Chief Merchandising Officer for Walmart U.S., commented at the Raymond James 37th Annual Institutional Investors Conference when discussing why the company is looking to start with fresh. “And we know when we get fresh right the entire box benefits from that business as we go forward.”

The retail giant reports it has already seen success in its growth in fresh, with 52-week produce market share up 44 basis points and anticipations for the trend to continue up. Organic has also been a plus for Walmart, with market share up 80 basis points in the last 52 weeks.

And to ensure that its service is as fresh as its produce, the company is also adding a fresh operations manager at the market level in each market to teach, train, and build capabilities in the stores on an ongoing basis for the department.

“Freshness is the key. It's how you actually judge the product and we've taken a full day at inventory out of our supply chain over the last year to make sure that we continue to provide that fresher experience,” Bratspies said.

Changes the company has made, or is planning to make, to the produce department include:

• Lead off with fresh bulk vegetables
• Expanded space for cut fruit
• Changing the assortment mix between bagged and bulk product
• Flipping the wet wall

The CMO added that the produce department will have reoriented fixturing and a lower profile. “So you're going to be able to come in, you're going to have more space, you're going to have more sightlines, able to see the wet wall, see the deli, easier to shop, it's going to change dramatically the look and feel of our produce department.”

With a change in the fresh layout, more assortment in fresh items, and bulding of the produce and deli business as far as capabilities in thousands of stores, it will be interesting to see what influence this plan has on the grocery industry.

Walmart