Wal-Mart to expand Harry's test by late summer

Nation's Restaurant News, April 10, 1995 by Louise Kramer

BENTONVILLE, Ark. -- In an effort to grab a piece of the at-home dining dollar, Wal-Mart here plans to launch its four-unit test of a takeout food concept, Harry's in a Hurry, by late summer, a consultant for the project said.

The test is part of the retail giant's continuing experiments with prepared food items targeting time-pressed shoppers who want help making dinner but still want to eat it at home rather than at a restaurant.

Harry's in a Hurry is the two-unit takeout concept of Harry's Farmers Market, a much-admired Atlanta fresh foods retailer with three megastores and a fourth set to open this spring.

The Harry's takeout units are upscale convenience stores that emphasize perishables like European-style breads and a mesclun salad mix as well as a wide range of center-of-the-plate items shoppers can take home to heat and serve.

Offerings, which are sold mostly from refrigerated selfservice cases, include a number of chicken items, lasagnas, meat loaf, pastas and sauces, quiche and ready-to-bake pizza. There is also prepacked sushi. Whole roast chickens sell for $5.99 each, and ready-to-bake lasagna is $6.99 for a four-serving container. Gourmet grocery items are also offered as well as made-to order sandwiches.

The stores are about 5,000 square feet in area and are supplied in large part from Harry's central bakery and prepared-foods commissaries in Atlanta.

In the Wal-Marts the Harry's in a Hurry will have about 1,000 square feet of space and will operate as a store within a store as a leased operation with its own staff, said the project consultant for Wal-Mart, Rich Donckers, president of Retail Strategies International, based here. Food mostly will be offered from self-service cases although some deli meats, cheeses and salads may be offered from a service counter.

"We've laid out a couple of versions. We might try something different in each of the locations, Donckers said. No seating will be provided although shoppers will be able to eat in Wal-Mart's snack bar, he added.

Harry's is known in the competitive Atlanta retail market as a retailer that attracts shoppers looking for quality and freshness and not necessarily bargain prices.

"We see a very unique concept of fresh prepared foods that would be convenient for the consumer who is pressed for time to pick up a quality meal to take home and serve and eat," explained Donckers, adding that the Wal-Mart takeout programs are still in their "infancy."

"We know about the trends in this country with two parents working and the pressure of spending time in the kitchen. This is another convenience. They can take a quality meal home instead of fast food," he said.

For Wal-Mart, Donckers said, "It's just made sense to add another convenience to its facilities."

Donckers, a former executive with Wal-Mart, remarked he had been looking at a number of ways to bring takeout food into traditional Wal-Mart units. He observed that for now, the programs are not intended for the retail giant's fast-growing supercenter format, which includes grocery store operations within the walls of a traditional Wal-Mart.

However, items that take off in the tests will not be ignored for possible inclusion in the supercenter food mix, Donckers said. Of its 2,144 stores, 150 now have the supercenter format, according to the company.

Wal-Mart also is developing its own takeout concept, which is completely separate from the Harry's in a Hurry, called The Chef. It opened in a one-unit test in Rogers, Ark., near Wal-Mart headquarters, last November. Donckers declined to discuss sales results.

"It's too early to tell which one is going to be a more advantageous route," Donckers said of the in-house Chef program vs. a leased program like Harry's in a Hurry.

David Pattillo, vice president of corporate planning and development for Harry's and spokesman for the company, declined to be interviewed.

Donckers said he approached Harry's to participate in the test and added that Wal-Mart is looking into other similar relationships with regional food operators, which he declined to specify. Wal-Mart already operates snack bars in a large number of stores, and it has teamed up in joint ventures with McDonald's, Taco Bell and Wendy's, among other big names in fast food, to run more traditional branded foodservice programs inside its stores.

Ed Comeau, an analyst with Lehman Bros. in New York who tracks Wal-Mart, called the Harry's in a Hurry test a typical move for the company. "This is an experiment for them, and they are going to learn whatever they can," he said. "I can't think long term they will do much with Harry's. If it becomes meaningful for them, they will do it themselves. They've got a lot to learn from Harry's Farmers Market, and that's what this is."

Comeau said he views the retailer's relationships with major fast feeders somewhat differently. Companies like McDonald's bring in established programs with strong sales per square foot and trained employees.

Meanwhile, lessons already are being learned in the first prepared foods test in the Rogers store, Donckers said.