Walmart’s copycat strategy: Restaurant delivery is the latest way to break into established markets

One of Walmart’s first attempts at expansion came in 1975 with the launch of the Sav-Co Home Improvement Center chain. The brand failed to take off and Walmart shifted its focus to adding new features to its stores.

Although local hardware stores were common during this time, large store formats were relatively uncommon. Home Depot didn’t open its first stores until 1979.

One of Walmart’s first in-store experiments took place in the pharmacy sector, which began in 1978 and has since grown into one of the company’s core business areas.

Walmart filled an estimated $36.8 billion in prescriptions last year, making it the fifth-largest pharmacy in the U.S., according to the Drug Channels Institute, which tracks the pharmaceutical industry.

More recently, Walmart has ramped up its prescription delivery speed, filling some orders 30 minutes or less.

Walmart opened its first car care center in Oklahoma in 1979 and has expanded the service to nearly 2,600 locations across the US.

Walmart’s auto centers have also served as a testing ground for the company’s growing third-party marketplace, where customers can order products such as tires online that will be shipped to a local store for scheduled installation.

The 1980s were a busy decade for Walmart and Sam Walton in terms of experimentation.

“’82, ’83 I think he opened four different formats in that two-year period,” Furner said in June. “Sam’s Club came out and was really successful, and with the others we decided not to continue.”

Walton’s approach to the wholesale club was modeled after Saul Price’s FedMart and Price Club concepts, the latter of which also inspired and eventually merged with Costco.

Sam’s Club now has more than 600 U.S. locations with $90 billion in sales last year.

The Walmart supercenter is a quintessentially American phenomenon, but Walton famously modeled the concept after the European hypermarket format, which combined general merchandise retailing with groceries under one roof.

“It was probably five or six years before there was a store in Washington, Missouri that worked,” Furner said of Walton’s efforts to adapt the hypermarket concept to the US.

It took Walmart opening a dozen more supercenters before the idea really gained traction, he added.

There are now more than 3,500 supercenters and more than 650 convenience stores in the US. Walmart is the nation’s largest supermarket chain, raking in about one in every five dollars spent in this category, according to consumer analytics firm Numerator.

About a decade ago, Walmart embarked on a wave of merger activity, acquiring specialty retailers Bonobos, Moosejaw and Modcloth in an effort to expand the company’s reach with specialty brands and e-commerce customers.

All three chains remained independent of Walmart’s core business and were subsequently sold to other owners as the company refocused on its own offerings.

In 2019, Walmart brought its advertising efforts in-house with what would become Walmart Connect, which sells advertising space for the company’s physical and digital properties.

Combined with a growing third-party e-commerce marketplace and its acquisition of TV maker Vizio, Walmart’s advertising business has delivered significant revenue growth in recent years.

Walmart’s latest bet puts the company on course to compete more directly with food delivery apps like DoorDash and Uber Eats.

After grocery delivery customers can add meals of Subway stores in storesWalmart said in September it would bring thousands of third-party Dunkin’ locations to the service.

Walmart has already established itself as a powerhouse in fast delivery of merchandise, groceries and medicines – now it’s ready to fulfill more of what other chains are also selling.