The Walmart Neighborhood Market opens in Fort Oglethorpe, Ga.The world's biggest retailer debuted its smaller store concept in the Chattanooga market today with the opening of its Neighborhood Market grocery store in Fort Oglethorpe.
"This is a great day for Wal-Mart and our customers," said Casey Robertson, store manager for the 41,000-square-foot store that opened this morning on Battlefield Parkway. "This gives customers convenience and affordability in a smaller store format."
The Fort Oglethorpe Neighborhood Market offers fresh produce, a full-line of groceries, a pharmacy, bakery and deli. But the store is only about one fourth the size of Wal-Mart's superstores in the area.
Wal-Mart entered the Georgia market with its Neighborhood Market format three years ago in the northern Atlanta suburbs of Marietta. Wal-Mart is planning at least a half dozen Neighborhood Market stores in the Chattanooga region this year, including the next Neighborhood Market store set to open within the next couple of months in Dalton, Ga.
"These stores offer the same price advantage that other Wal-Mart stores offer but they are more convenient and easier for many shoppers to use for their regular grocery shopping, said Tracy Lloyd, the market manager for Neighborhood Market.
The Fort Oglethorpe Neighborhood Market may be smaller in size than most Wal-Mart superstores, but it opened today with most of the 86 store store employees giving the customary morning Wal-Mart cheer before Fort Oglethorpe Mayor Lynn Long cut the ribbon at 7:30 a.m.