Test marketing Wal-Mart Express

A story from my colleague Gloria Lloyd in this weekend's News & Observer goes into some detail about the new Wal-Mart Express stores that are popping up around North Carolina.

Five out of the 11 Wal-Mart Express stores to open so far have been in North Carolina, and several more are planned by the end of the year. The new Express-format stores are only about 15,000 square feet, less than twice the size of a typical Family Dollar and perhaps 1/3 the size of a full-scale grocery store.

Although Wal-Mart has come to dominate much of the grocery market with its massive Supercenters (last year, Wal-Mart overtook Harris Teeter to become the No. 1 grocer in the Charlotte region), the grocery market is always fluid. The latest competitor to nip at Wal-Mart's heels is smaller retailers such as Family Dollar and Dollar General.

Both of those chains, as well as fellow convenience stores such as Walgreens, have greatly increased the amount of food and other consumable items such as cigarettes and cosmetic products, that they stock. Small, easier-to-navigate stores, combined with many more locations, has given the small retailers an edge in capturing the "fill-in trip," many retail analysts say. Basically, a consumer who needs a gallon of milk now has the choice of a small convenience store two blocks away, or a Wal-Mart Supercenter five miles away.

The smaller stores also give Wal-Mart the ability to fill in smaller markets, such as rural areas that couldn't support a Supercenter, and urban areas where there isn't enough space. And if customers want a product that the Express store doesn't carry, such as a television, they can order it online and pick it up at the Express store.