Wal-Mart is the Madonna of retailers - constantly re-inventing itself. 

At this week’s Analysts’ meeting, Wal-Mart announced that it was going to focus its investments on improving current stores and expanding internationally in 2009.  Apparently they got the party started early.  In a story from the Northwest Arkansas Daily News, Fayetteville, Arkansas residents got a taste of Wal-Mart’s new look.  Having already updated their logo, they are taking it several steps forward by using “light and color” to tie the different departments of the store together, in an attempt to create a more efficient, cohesive, and pleasant shopping experience.

Wal-Mart has historically focused less on store appearance, and more on driving-down prices.  In years past, Wal-Mart stores were characterized by large, industrial steel shelving with products stacked into the stratosphere, lighting like a coroner’s office, narrow yet crowded isles, and an all-around depressing and stressful shopping experience.  Wal-Mart’s Vice President for Store Appearance (must be a new position), Joe Tapper, addresses some of these problems in a story from BusinessWeek:

“We’re trying to make it more experiential, rather than just stuff we’re selling...We’ve placed emphasis on making it more enjoyable. Having shelves filled with cardboard boxes worked for a time, but has seen its day, Tapper said.”

This move could, in part, be due to the fact that Target stores tend to have a reputation of being cleaner, more stylish and more organized than Wal-Mart.  Some people recognize this and it can have an effect on where they shop.  Wal-Mart has studied the shopping habits of it’s customers and it’s customers, themselves.  This store platform will eventually see the debut of Wal-Mart’s ”Smart Network” which monitors customer activity and displays advertisements based on time of day or who is in the store.  They have certainly have come up with some interesting information.  This quote from BusinessWeek made my all-time top 15 favorite quotes from Wal-Mart Execs:

“Our signs are more female-friendly,” Tapper said. “The signs are all curved. Those things have been looked at and we’re trying to make those more friendly.”

As a man, I have always preferred the signs at my grocery store to be straight, not curved.  Everyone knows curved signs are for women - even Wal-Mart.  What a zinger.

A story out today from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette helps to clear up some of the questions about Wal-Mart’s recent logo change. The article explains that Wal-Mart The Company will continue to use the current, hyphenated form of the logo but that Walmart The Store will use the fancy new non-hyphenated version. As if that weren’t confusing enough, the article explains that the ever popular “squiggly” will remain in the Wal-Mart cheer. Yes, questions of how to spell Wal-Mart’s name will now involve a lengthy existentialist examination.

Exactly why Wal-Mart feels the need to make this distinction - between “the company” and its stores - remains unclear. The company wanted a new look for its stores, but changing every instance of its logo might have proven too complicated. Wal-Mart is, after all, the world’s largest company. But the distinction also plays in to an issue we raised yesterday - Wal-Mart The Company is beginning to distance itself from its stores. The company’s new Marketside shops bear no mention of their Bentonville parent, and perhaps the hypen/no-hypen distinction plays in to that. Does Wal-Mart The Company exist separate from its stores? Can it ever?

‘Walmart’ new, but store’s familiar [Arkansas Democrat-Gazette]

Wal-Mart or Walmart ? That depends, the company says. With the June 30 announcement of its new, nonhyphenated store logo, “Walmart” started showing up in some of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. ’s news releases and other statements and has been appearing in its printed advertising and in-store signs since then.

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The results of our Unofficial Wal-Mart Logo Redesign Contest are in, and Chris C.’s winning design “Walmart: Cut Costs, Harm Others” is now available on a union-made, union-printed red t-shirt. The top 10 finalists will be receiving a free shirt for their efforts, and the shirts are for sale to everyone else for $15. Tell the world what you think of Wal-Mart - click here to order yours. Numbers are limited! Order today!