Wal-Mart rolls out licensed garden centers

Discount Store News, Jan 3, 1994

BENTONVILLE--Wal-Mart is ready to start rolling out its second major private label hard lines program that uses the licensed of a popular magazine.

Following on the success of its Popular Mechanics hardware program, phased in over two years, Wal-Mart will begin opening this month in southern stores its new Better Homes and Gardens Garden Centers. In mid-February it will begin opening the centers in northern stores. It expects to convert lawn and garden centers to the new concept in all 2,000 stores by the summer, a spokesman for Better Homes and Gardens magazine said.

At least initially, about 200 skus will bear the BH&G name in these categories: tools, both short and long handled; garden hoses, pots and accessories; fencing; and potting soil, seasonal planters; gloves, bagged goods, such as fertilizers, soils and peat moss; grass seed; bulbs and live plants. The Better Homes and Gardens program won't include pesticides and chemicals. Live plants will carry hang tags that bear both the name of the grower and the BH&G logo.

The new approach to its garden centers can be seen as a move to overtake Kmart in an area where the No. 2 discounter outstrips Wal-Mart. Kmart is the largest seller of L&G products in the country, with '93 sales of an estimated $900 million. Wal-Mart trails, with sales last year at an estimated $700 million.

A key merchandising part of the new centers will be an interactive kiosk that contains product information. The vendors, whose products are named, will share the cost of the software with Wal-Mart. The information center will also carry free pamphlets and leaflets that Better Homes and Gardens staff writers developed, as well as offer for sale Better Homes and Gardens magazine itself, along with various gardening titles, such as Country Gardens, that its parent, Meredith Corp., publishes.

As with the Popular Mechanics program, licensed from Hearst, Meredith retained the right to test and pre-approve each product that will bear the BH&G name. Since that would be impossible with green goods, Better Homes and Gardens is trusting Wal-Mart to deal with quality growers.

By licensing the BH&G name, Wal-Mart can capitalize on the equity of the brand name, which has been published since 1922. The Better Homes and Gardens circulation now is 7.6 million, the fifth largest in the country.

Wal-Mart previously has put its Sam's Choice private label on one L&G product, potting soil, and put the Wal-Mart label on a cheaper sku of potting soil. Whether the BH&G label will replace them remains undetermined.

Advertising Age reported that Wal-Mart will introduce its new centers through both national television spots and ads in Meredith publications, including Better Homes and Gardens itself, starting in February.