Rockford Celebrates New Design With Grand Re-opening

Renovated store now offers a glimpse into the next generation of shopping

ROCKFORD, Ill., Aug. 23, 2010 – The Rockford Walmart, located at 3902 W. Riverside Blvd., will celebrate a grand re-opening this week, giving local shoppers a glimpse of the company’s next generation of store design and customer experience. The results of a three-month remodeling project will be unveiled at the Rockford Walmart at 7:30 a.m., Friday, Aug. 27. Among the many improvements are a new layout, wider aisles, low-profile shelving, bright interior paint scheme, enhanced lighting and easy-to-read signage to make the shopping experience more convenient for customers.

According to Einar Forsman, president and CEO of the Rockford Chamber of Commerce, Walmart continues to be a great community partner. “On behalf of the Rockford Chamber of Commerce, I'd like to congratulate Walmart on its re-grand opening. It's a very positive sign to see an area business make such a significant investment toward improving itself so it can better serve its customers and the community.” said Forman. “Walmart is a great asset to the Rockford region, as it not only provides many much needed jobs, it also makes significant contributions to our schools and local economy through its sponsorships, high consumer activity and resources it provides.” he added.

The remodeled Rockford store features a more open shopping environment with wider aisle that contains no product displays. Walmart also aligned the departments that customers shop most frequently, making it quicker to purchase everyday items, including moving the pet department next to the grocery department.

All areas of the Rockford store have been enhanced, including a new earth-toned exterior adorned with a blue spark Walmart logo. A bright interior paint scheme and enhanced lighting create a more inviting shopping experience and help define the store’s merchandise areas. Low-profile shelving creates an improved sightline and directional signage helps customers find the products they need.

“We listened to our customers and have redesigned the store to make shopping at Walmart even easier,” said store manager Stacy Johnson.

Among the changes, Walmart completely renovated the pharmacy with an open design, creating a much friendlier, accessible experience. The house wares department now features a department style layout with low-profile shelving to showcase the small appliances and one-stop shopping for cooking and kitchen essentials. Customers will appreciate the store’s new seasonal displays that feature everything customers need in one-stop shopping for back-to-school staples to Halloween candy and décor. The store relocated and combined the Site-to-Store and photo lab to the back of the store with dedicated staff to assist customers with added services such as digital prints and posters.

The remodel brings Walmart customers an expanded electronics department featuring a wide selection of the latest consumer electronics and home entertainment. The new design includes a more hands-on experience for customers with expansive video gaming selection and portable electronics. The interactive experience enables shoppers to test new technology.

The store added shelf space in the grocery department to offer expanded gluten free and organic selections and the bakery, produce, dairy and frozen food sections got enhanced with new product displays. A new department called Celebration Station has been added and will feature party supplies, greeting cards, balloons and helium tanks, cake supplies and gift wrap.

The grand re-opening celebration is scheduled for Friday, Aug. 27, and will begin with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 8 a.m. Local dignitaries will assist Johnson and store associates in cutting the ribbon to the newly remodeled store.

The Walmart Foundation has committed $2 billion to U.S. hunger relief efforts through 2015. The Fighting Hunger Together campaign will also engage Walmart customers and associates in the fight against hunger. More information can be found at walmart.com/fightinghunger.

The store is also committed to being a good environmental steward. Part of the cement used in the store’s concrete flooring is made with recycled materials, and the baseboards are manufactured from 100 percent recycled plastic. The photo department also uses green technology, operating completely without liquid chemicals for photo processing. The store also has improved its recycling efforts with a new recycling program which features a sandwich bale process that takes all loose plastic, hangers, aluminum cans and office paper, sandwiches them between cardboard, bundles them into bales and sends them to recycling centers. In addition, the store will be composting all organic products.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT), or “Walmart,” serves customers and members more than 200 million times per week at more than 8,400 retail units under 55 different banners in 15 countries. With fiscal year 2010 sales of $405 billion, Walmart employs more than 2 million associates worldwide. A leader in sustainability, corporate philanthropy and employment opportunity, Walmart ranked first among retailers in Fortune Magazine’s 2009 Most Admired Companies survey. Additional information about Walmart can be found by visiting www.walmartstores.com and on Twitter at http://Twitter.com/walmart. Online merchandise sales are available at www.walmart.com and www.samsclub.com.

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