Wal-Mart aims Marketside for fastest grocery trips

ROGERS, Ark., June 6 (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) is developing its Marketside stores to lure shoppers with its quickest option to buy fresh groceries, the chief executive of the company's U.S. division said on Friday.

Wal-Mart shoppers might shop at the company's supercenters once a month and go to its grocery-based Neighborhood Markets once a week, but would use Marketside for quick trips to buy perishables, said Eduardo Castro-Wright, head of the global retailer's U.S. division.

Acknowledging that the company doesn't "disclose much information on Marketside," he said the stores will feature a smaller assortment than a traditional grocery store and will focus on fresh goods.

The world's largest retailer, which has described Marketside as "the neighborhood market for busy people with a taste for fresh and delicious food," is preparing to open four of its first stores of this format in the Phoenix, Arizona, area. Plans have been in development for 18 months.

"The intent is to capture more of the quick trip customers," Castro-Wright told reporters following the company's annual shareholders meeting.

The company has stayed mostly quiet on its plans for Marketside as British supermarket rival Tesco (TSCO.L) has entered the U.S marketplace, opening Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets stores in California, Arizona and Nevada.

Tesco wants to woo U.S. shoppers with smaller convenience stores that emphasize ready-to-eat meals and fresh produce.

Marketside store application plans call for the stores to occupy roughly 15,000 square feet (1,400 square meters). That is less than half the average size of Wal-Mart's Neighborhood Market grocery stores, and a small fraction of the size of its Supercenters, which combine grocery stores with general merchandise and can be more than three times the size of a U.S. football field. (Reporting by Alexandria Sage; Editing by Gary Hill)