Fresh Take: Wal-Mart Strategic Outlook
Wal-Mart Stores seeks to strengthen its competitive edge in produce, self-checkouts, store formats and other areas
Wal-Mart Stores has cast itself as a fast-moving innovator with intentions on continued advances into the U.S. food and consumables market, including an aggressive campaign to expand fresh produce sales, the potential to accelerate grocery and club store rollouts, and an appetite for e-commerce and other means of driving growth and efficiency.
Couched carefully in messages of employee appreciation, consumer advocacy and corporate compliance — “The Real Walmart” as a new ad campaign puts it — the world’s largest retailer celebrated before 14,000 enthusiastic workers in a star-studded annual meeting event near its Bentonville, Ark., headquarters earlier this month.
Bill Simon, chief executive officer of Walmart U.S., in remarks at a press event prior to the meeting reiterated his belief that a strategy based on expense controls and price investments would continue to drive results through a virtuous productivity loop. Despite a sales blip in the first quarter of this year, which he attributed to unusual events including poor weather and an adjustment to new tax laws, he expects same-store sales to continue to rebound for a third straight year.
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