Say goodbye to Wal-Mart’s neighborhood Marketside grocery stores. Employees were told today all Arizona locations will close Oct. 21.
Wal-Mart launched the Marketside concept – similar to Fresh & Easy stores – in 2008 with stores in Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert and Tempe.
The Marketside stores, generally around 15,000 square feet, were conceived to fill a perceived niche between traditional grocery stores (45,000 square feet) and convenience stores (5,000 square feet).
Fresh & Easy, which has several ready-but-unopened stores in Arizona, also has struggled, reportedly losing $300 million last year.
Why not just go to a regular Walmart? Bigger selection, just as close.
Not necessarily. There’s a Marketside only a mile from my house. Nearest Wal-Mart is probably 4-5 miles away.
But I think one of the main attractions was supposed to be ability to park 20 feet from door, zip in and grab a few items, and get out in just a couple minutes.
to bad, nice quick alternative to the two hour walk through the larger stores
just wondering why the smaller stores didn’t/aren’t working
They never got the volume of customers necessary. I think a lot of people didn’t understand what they were. It didn’t help that when they first launched, they tried to hide their connection to Wal-Mart by just calling them “Marketside.” Later, they changed direction and switched their name to “Marketside by Wal-Mart.” By then, though, I think it was too late. It’s too bad, because I think more people would have shopped there if they’d ever visited one.