BENTONVILLE, AR - Walmart is continuously making moves in grocery it seems, including bolstering its online portfolio through cyber subsidiary Jet.com. The online brand Walmart acquired last year for $3 billion is said to be prepping its own grocery line to launch under its first private label, with more than 60 food and household items, reports the New York Post.
It is the second food pilot news to break on Walmart’s behalf this week. The CEO of Terra’s Kitchen, Michael McDevitt, revealed the retailer is currently shopping to break into the meal kit segment via its website as soon as December, joining the race with Albertsons and Amazon.
Retail consultant Burt Flickinger, who the Post said is familiar with Jet.com’s plans, said its private label merchandise “will be better quality than many of the national name brands.”
In the traditional grocery sector, price wars have increasingly heated up with the introduction and expansion of discounters like Aldi and Lidl, as well as the merger and expansion of Ahold Delhaize.
“Walmart is where consumers go to buy branded products for less, but everyone is getting into private label now and Walmart has to elevate its offerings,” Steve Johnson, of Foodservice Solutions, told the source.
The pilot will be tested first through Jet.com for the first year before later moving to be sold on Walmart.com, and a source familiar with the plan said the items could move from there into stores.
“The branded vendors are privately telling us that they are relieved about the Jet.com division becoming a big private label seller,” said Flickinger. “They see Jet.com as the best opportunity to slow Amazon’s march towards making unreasonable demands in its procurement.”
As we await the effects this might have on the produce industry and the market for Walmart suppliers, keep checking in with AndNowUKnow.
