Wal-Mart doubling organic food offerings
Mon Mar 6, 7:46 PM ET
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. aims to be the mass-market provider of organic food, and will have doubled its organic offerings over the next couple of weeks, Wal-Mart's head of dry grocery told Reuters on Monday.
DeDe Priest, who was promoted to senior vice president of dry grocery in December, said the retailer has no intention of becoming a health food store, but wants to make organic food accessible to all.
"What you're going to see is over the next couple of weeks, we're going to have doubled our SKU (stock keeping unit) count," Priest said at the Reuters Food Summit in Chicago.
The move comes as Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, is bringing in more upscale merchandise in the hope of getting shoppers to buy more than just the basics.
Wal-Mart is the top U.S. grocery seller and also No. 1 in organic milk sales. It carries organic baby food, juice, produce and pasta sauce, but will be expanding its offerings to include products ranging from pickles to macaroni and cheese.
Priest said Wal-Mart has paid close attention to the small-but-growing organic market for several years, and decided to make its move now as studies show a majority of U.S. consumers buy at least some organic food.
She declined to say what percentage of Wal-Mart's food offerings would be organic, but said the retailer wants to be the access point for organic foods at a value, and "knock out the myth that it's just for the rich."
Priest met with CEOs from 15 of the top consumer products companies in her first week on the job to stress the importance of organics and press them to expand their offerings.
For food manufacturers, getting into a new category such as organics can be risky without a retailer committed to selling those products, so Wal-Mart's push into organics will likely drive more production.
Organics remain a small part of the U.S. food industry, but they present a key growth opportunity for Wal-Mart as the retailer looks for ways to get customers to buy more.
Wal-Mart already draws some 100 million U.S. customers to its stores each week, so the focus has been on convincing existing customers who may shop Wal-Mart for food to buy designer clothing or flat-panel televisions as well.
Priest declined to comment on pricing strategies, but said the retailer would not be making "extra money" on organics.
"Our focus is never really to grow our margin, it's to grow our absolute sales," Priest said.
I went to good ol' Wally World on Friday night and I was surprised that they had a lot more organic stuff. I bought some of it too b/c I don't have a lot of time to go elsewhere. The organic pickles..the ones refrigerated by the Clausen ones are delicious!!!
I was really impressed..Go Wal-Mart!
This is good news for those of us who, like me, live in rural areas and don't have a lot of options. We're about to get a WalMart SuperCenter in my town, and I'm looking forward to finding organic foods there.
I especially like the point that with such a major retailer doubling inventory on these products, manufacturers will be encouraged to produce more. I'd like to see a wider and more affordable variety, and maybe this will help in the long term.
I just noticed this when I was doing some shopping today. My WalMart Supercenter has always had some stock of organic products (mainly in the produce section), but I noticed today that it was a lot larger than it usually is. I think it's a great option...although with a very picky "meat and potatoes" husband...it's not always an option for our household.
__________________ Rebecca ~ 35
DH Matt ~ 39
Married 11-20-04
TTC for 5 years...never pregnant.
Hoping for a miracle...
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Wal-Mart doubling organic food offerings 
