Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is making deeper inroads into the grocery arena with a particular aim at competing against newcomer, Tesco PLC. Tesco, the grocery giant, which is based in the United Kingdom and operates globally, recently expanded to the U.S., beginning in the west.
It introduced the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market chain in California and Phoenix. Currently it is lapping up prime real estate, primarily on corners in urban areas.
In response, according to a report in the Financial Times, Wal-Mart will test four small grocery stores in the Phoenix market. The pilot units will be called Marketside. According to the report, they will be approximately 20,000 square feet, which is about half the size of Wal-Mart's Neighborhood Market grocery stores and twice the size of rival Tesco's Fresh & Easy units.
The Wal-Mart Marketside prototypes will be located on street corners in the Phoenix area that were formerly acquired and later sold by CVS drugstores, during the breakup of the Albertson's supermarkets in 2006.
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