Walmart Neighborhood Markets Could Cause Omaha Shopping Showdown

With two boys to feed, stay-at-home mother Vanessa Kirby of Omaha already clips coupons and spends much of her grocery budget at a Walmart Supercenter, where she believes she often gets the lowest prices.

Kirby, 24, says she expects to shift even more of her shopping to Walmart next year when the giant retailer brings a new grocery concept, the Walmart Neighborhood Market, to the Omaha metro area, including one about two miles from her home.

“People aren't going to have to drive 10 minutes to get to Walmart,” Kirby said. “They're going to be able to run to their neighorhood market and get the milk they need for their cereal in the morning.”

The six neighborhood market stores planned for the area — four in Omaha, one each in La Vista and Bellevue — are part of an aggressive national rollout of a concept Walmart has been testing and honing for more than a decade. The stores' arrival in 2013, analysts say, will be a real threat to existing supermarkets, especially those that compete most aggressively on price rather than service.

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