Wal-Mart replaces Garland Hypermart to woo latino Customers

07 May 2008

In an attempt to attract more Latinos to their stores, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has replaced its historic Garland Hypermart store with a new location, and is calling it its first ‘Hispanic community’ store.

“The new Garland store at 1801 Marketplace Drive is the first designed from the ground up to meet the needs of Hispanic shoppers,” said Daniel Morales, regional spokesman for Wal-Mart.

According to Wal-Mart, the new store's customer base is more than 50 per cent Hispanic and more than 1,000 of its stores are in predominantly Hispanic neighbourhoods.

The new Garland store features the chain's first kids furniture department, first drive-through garden centre loading area, and first bakery equipped to make corn tortilla chips from scratch.

It is the first to stock several Latino brands from Mexico that include Fud lunch meat and cheeses, and Bonafont soft drinks, Topo Chico, Barrilitos and Jarritos.

The infant and toddler department is one of the largest in Texas, he said. The store has a new ‘events’ department at its entrance which will be stocked to match the season or holiday.

The Garland Hypermart dates back to 1986, when Wal-Mart formed a joint venture with Dallas-based Cullum Cos. The joint venture opened a second Hypermart USA in Arlington at I-20 and Cooper Street in 1988.

With an estimated 14 per cent of its US shoppers being Latino, Wal-Mart in recent years has been tailoring stores to meet the needs of Hispanic families. It has added speciality bakery items, expanded varieties of chile peppers, printed store signs and advertising circulars in Spanish, and stocked baby Abuelita dolls for Three Kings Day celebrations.