There's something new on the Wal-Mart scene -- a "Neighborhood Market."

The first Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market opened last week in the company's corporate hometown of Bentonville, Ark.

A lot of people were on hand to look at the new concept last Wednesday.

Neighborhood Market is a 40,000-square-foot concept that Wal-Mart will test in five Arkansas cities -- Bentonville, Springdale, Fayetteville, Sherwood and Fort Smith.

The new concept is a combination grocery store-pharmacy with some general merchandise, such as health and beauty aids, paper and pet products.

"This first-ever Neighborhood Market (at Bentonville) will improve our customer service in Benton County," said Henry Jordan, director of Wal-Mart Neighborhood Markets. "We plan to experiment with a variety of merchandise assortments and use that knowledge to benefit our entire network of stores.

Second opening this week

Jordan and Wal-Mart were hosts to about 30 journalists for a tour of the new Neighborhood Market when it opened. A second prototype store will open in Sherwood this week. Wal-Mart officials refuse to speculate how fast the new chain could expand, but stores are scheduled at Fort Smith and Springdale later this year.

The idea for the stores came from customers who expressed a need for a more convenient shopping experience, say Wal-Mart officials.

The Neighborhood Markets are designed much like traditional grocery store. About 40 percent of the store is dedicated to pharmacy, health and beauty aids. The remaining 60 percent is traditional grocery, produce and deli.

You can bet some national grocery store chains -- Kroger, Safeway, Schnucks, and others -- will keep a watch on Wal-Mart's latest venture.

'Retail-tainment'

Even in smaller quarters, Wal-Mart's "retail-tainment" is present. A model train rolls on a track above one aisle, toting a brand of bottled water, television sets around the store played a satellite feed of advertising, and a mirror on one isle reflected on to the floor a lighted message to buy Tropicana orange juice.

The potential for the scaled-down, more convenient Wal-Marts could be a big one. If the Arkansas testing grounds prove positive, Wal-Mart might place the stores in suburban or rural markets between existing Wal-Mart Supercenters.

Wal-Mart, the world's No. 1 retailer, already operates more than 2,300 stores and 440 Sam's Club membership warehouses in the United States. The company also operates stores in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Mexico and Puerto Rico and has joint-venture stores in China and Korea, which all adds up to more than $135 billion a year in sales.

On the regional scene

Construction continues on the new Wal-Mart Supercenter, being built on East Jackson Boulevard.

The new, 109,000-square-foot store, expected to open next spring, will replace the current Jackson Wal-Mart, a 34,405-square-foot facility.

The company will add 150 new employees to its staff of 80;.

The new store, about a mile off Interstate 55, is only a few miles north, of the Cape Girardeau Supercenter, a 175,000-square-foot store.

Keith Morris, a spokesman for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., says the proximity of the two stores is not as important as traffic patterns and growth projections. He cites the case of two giant supercenters in the Bentonville area where a 180,000-square-foot Supercenter at the corporate headquarters is only four miles from the 175,000-square-foot Supercenter in Rogers. Bentonville has a population of 11,000, Rogers a population of 30,000.

Two 109,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenters have opened in Perryville and Anna, Ill. The Perryville supercenter near Interstate 55 opened Aug. 19. The new facility at Anna, near U.S. 51 and Illinois 146, opened last summer.

Good news for ShopKo

ShopKo Stores, a specialty discount retailer with 147 stores in 16 states, piled up some impressive sales totals during the past month.

Retail sales increased 21.4 percent, to $263 million, up from the $217 million during the same period a year ago.

To October, ShopKo sales were up 15.9 percent, to $1.8 billion, up from the $1.5 billion during the same period a year ago.

ShopKo will open in Cape Girardeau's West Park Mall and Paducah's Kentucky Oaks Mall next spring, in vacated Venture Stores.

The company will open 13 stores next year, including an 81,300-square-foot store at 5101 Hinklevelle Road in Paducah and a 92,500-square-foot store at 300 West Park Mall and an 81,400-square-foot store at Joplin.

ShopKo provides a variety of products and services. It focuses on casual apparel, household items, family basics, leisure and seasonal products and health items, including in-store pharmacies and optical centers.

B. Ray Owen is business editor for the Southeast Missourian.