Wal-Mart Brings Back Some Branded SKUs 2010-03-08

JULIE GALLAGHER

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Wal-Mart Stores is bringing back some brand name cereal, carbonated soft drink, laundry detergent, pet treat and health and beauty supply SKUs that were pared as part of its Project Impact, Leon Nicholas, director at consulting firm Kantar Retail, told SN.

Kantar Retail has clients who supply the retailer. In some cases the changes are dictated by consumer demand.

"There may be cases where [Wal-Mart] cut away a SKU here or there where a shopper had it on their list or saw it as a key value indicator," said Nicholas. "Some might say, 'You mistakenly cut too far' and I think [Wal-Mart] might say, 'It's not that we mistakenly cut too far, we intentionally cut a little further than we thought we'd need to so we could bring SKUs back appropriately as customer feedback dictated.'"

That's not to say that a drop in sales will indicate the need to bring back SKUs in other categories, like those deemed "show" under Wal-Mart's Project Impact model, Nicholas added. Slower sales are expected in de-emphasized segments like frozen juice, where Wal-Mart merchandises a limited number of items for convenience purposes.

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