Walmart’s Millennial Move

Walmart recently announced their intention to focus on millennials in the apparel category at the Raymond James 37th institutional investors’ conference.  With 4500 stores across the U.S. (accessible within 10 minutes of 90 percent of the population) and a growing online business, soon to be accelerated by its acquisition of Jet.com, Walmart declared that their apparel strategy, “Shocking Value,” would have rock-bottom pricing that cannot be replicated. Well, my first reaction was that if one were to pair millennials with rock bottom pricing for apparel, Primark would come to mind. This stylish brand opened its first store in Boston with plans to roll out across the U.S.  Essentially, the three cornerstones of this Ireland-based retailer’s strategy (with 300 stores across Europe and doing $800 a square foot), is to provide 1., an exciting, fun, modern and upscale shopping experience; 2., trendy merchandise, delivering new fashions almost daily (fast fashion); and 3., the lowest prices. OK! Got it. All of this, of course, has millennial mindset written all over it. And my visit to the Boston store was my enthusiastic ingestion of Primark Kool-Aid. It was jam-packed with millennials and the store was hitting the ball out of the park on all three points. Read more at The Robin Report.