Save Money. Shop Worse.

(expect more. pay a little more.)

A second, more trivial but still interesting photo in the PG also caught my eye yesterday morning, below a headline that read:

REMAKING WAL-MART
Big-box retailer overhauling a look that some customers say is too plain



Before I’d read a word of the article, one thought leapt immediately to mind:

They’re trying to be more like Target.

The wide aisles. The bank of flat-screen TVs. The brightness and cleaniness and just general pleasantness of a store in which you might like to stop and shop and spend some time and that, once you do, won't make you feel as if you need to go home and take a shower and try to scrub the filth and stagnance from your flesh.

The garish signs, the cold tones, and all that crap along the left side of the aisle suggest they still have a long way to go if they ever hope to copy achieve the aura, the vibe, the warm and welcoming groove of a Target store.

But mixed results aside, the photo clearly announced their strategy. Teresa Lindeman’s reporting confirmed it:

The retailers is determined to take market share from its competitors. “Hands down, this whole initiative was driven by the fear that Target had the upper hands on them in terms of customer service,” said Lynn Gonsior, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Interbrand Design Forum in Dayton, Ohio.

It’s interesting to note that, so far at least, Wal-Mart seems to be targeting store layout, designs, and displays as the best ways to catch Target in customer service. While those changes will likely be welcome, they won’t do much to solve the problems of hard-to-find employees, indifferent employees, spotty selection, a check-out process that could just as well be measured in hours as in minutes, and the vague but still resonant sense that you’re shopping at the retail equivalent of a run-down soup kitchen.

In surveys, customers said... they wanted the places to be faster, friendlier, and cleaner.

The folks at Wal-Mart are calling these redesigns Project Impact. If they were honest with themselves, or with anyone else, they’d call them Project Target.

If Wal-Mart's customers were honest with themselves, and if they were really serious about wanting speed, friendliness, and cleanliness in a big-box retailer, they would have long ago launched their own initiative called Project Shop at Target.

After all — if you don’t understand that you get what you pay for, then you’d better be willing to accept that you get what you don’t pay for.