Source | Lingshou ID | lingshouke Author | Li Youxunhuan
500-800 square meters of store space, about 2,000 SKUs, a uniform price point of 9.99 yuan, and over half of the products being private label "沃集鲜" (Walmart's own brand) — this is Walmart's latest community store in Bao'an, Shenzhen. The toast is made with "4.0 Little Green Bottle Milk" and contains no preservatives; morel mushroom soup vegetable noodles sit alongside HPP fruit tea, balancing health and trendiness; in the condiment section, the premium soy sauce with only five ingredients and oyster sauce with over 45% fresh content are so clean you can almost recite the ingredient list. This is not a downsized hypermarket but a complete model reinvention: using a small footprint to carry high-frequency daily necessities, leveraging curated private labels to ensure quality, and stabilizing consumer mindset with Everyday Low Price (EDLP). As of September 2025, Walmart has opened four community stores in Shenzhen, rapidly scaling up. "Now is the time to share," said Zhu Jun, Senior Vice President and Chief Merchandising Officer of Walmart China. "We have established a clear customer profile, customer value proposition, and strategy. Community stores are well-loved by customers, and Walmart has achieved phased progress through a coordinated ecosystem, matrix, and layout." In other words, this is not just a 'small store' story but a 'game-changing' transformation from the ground up, reinventing both the underlying logic and product strength. 'Small, Curated, Nearby': Reinventing Product Strength Walmart defines the core tags of its community stores as: 'Small, Curated, Nearby'. Small: 500-800 square meters, far smaller than hypermarkets that often exceed 10,000 square meters. After downsizing, sales per square foot are greatly amplified. Curated: About 2,000 SKUs, carefully selected for daily high-frequency items, crafted around 'five meals a day' rather than pursuing 'big and comprehensive'. Nearby: Rooted in the community, building a '10-minute walking life circle' to truly integrate into consumers' daily lives. Behind this is Walmart's precise targeting of urban mass middle-class consumers. They are small families, small homes, busy office workers; they value quality and cost-effectiveness and seek ultimate convenience. This is also the most competitive segment in retail and the one with the most potential. A large number of '沃集鲜' products plus a small amount of '惠宜' (Great Value), with other brands accounting for a very low proportion. The logic is straightforward: through private labels, Walmart controls product strength, ensures quality, and offers an extremely high quality-to-price ratio. With Walmart's endorsement, quality is no longer a question. Differentiation is more evident in: Clean ingredients and minimal additives: The healthy condiment series contains only five ingredients; the preservative-free toast has become a bestseller in the bakery section. Top-tier factory OEM: The 4.0 Little Green Bottle Milk is widely popular, spawning toast, ice cream, and milk tea series. Innovative categories: Morel mushroom soup vegetable noodles and kale chia seed tea combine traditional ingredients with modern nutrition. This path essentially leverages Walmart's global scale and supply chain advantages to truly solidify 'high quality + low price'. Walmart had previously experimented with community stores in its early years, but that model was just a 'downsized hypermarket' with vague product structure and lacking true differentiation. This time, it has finally found its footing: using private labels as a lever, focusing on high-frequency essentials, and forming a closed loop. Hard Discount Prototype Emerges, Small Stores Are Also 'One Chess Game' The star of global retail now is hard discount. In China, the most discussed in recent years are Aldi and 超盒算NB (Chaosuan NB). Aldi: Entered with the German model, rising through minimal SKUs and private brands, but its scale-up in China has not yet accelerated, with nearly 80 stores currently. 超盒算NB: With internet genes and strong capital, it quickly became an industry focus, with over 300 stores, but it is still validating its model. In comparison, Walmart's community stores are not inferior, and in some aspects even superior: In product strength, 沃集鲜 has built a complete differentiated portfolio. In supply chain, Walmart's long-accumulated scale advantages and global sourcing network are hard for new players to replicate. In omnichannel, Walmart's 'hypermarket + community store + e-commerce' one-chess-game approach gives it stronger coverage. The core of hard discount is: minimal SKUs, strong supply chain control, low margins with high efficiency, and extreme quality-to-price ratio. Walmart's community stores have already embarked on this path. With 2,000 SKUs, nearly half being private labels, combined with EDLP and the '9.99 yuan price point' covering bakery, juice, and ready-to-eat categories, consumers feel stable value in high-frequency purchases. From the frequent hits of 沃集鲜, to the Little Green Bottle Milk becoming a viral product on Xiaohongshu, to the 'treasure hunt' (big-brand low prices, self-indulgent products) in community stores, Walmart has regained influence among younger consumers. From a business model perspective, Walmart's four community stores in Shenzhen can be fully classified as 'hard discount format'. It can even be said that today's Walmart is not the Walmart of the past. In terms of maturity in format innovation and product strength enhancement, it has completed a 'game-changing' upgrade. Retail competition, in the final analysis, is competition for consumer mindshare. To some extent, Walmart's community stores already have the prototype of a hard discount store. As long as it is willing, it has the conditions to become a dark horse in China's hard discount sector at any time. A New Walmart If the past two decades of Chinese retail were condensed into a map, Walmart would definitely leave a deep mark on it. In 1996, the first Walmart store opened in Luohu, Shenzhen. At that time, China was rapidly shifting from a 'seller's market' to a 'buyer's market'. Foreign retailers, marked by hypermarkets and warehouse-style shopping, quickly attracted countless consumers. But time is the cruelest variable. With the overlay of urban layout changes, consumption habits, and digital disruption, hypermarkets gradually fell into fatigue. Foot traffic decreased, sales per square foot declined, and the experience was no longer what it used to be. The dim exits of Carrefour, Tesco, and Metro are the best footnotes. Walmart did not retreat but chose to transform. Over the years, it has pushed forward transformation with bold strokes: hypermarket renovation, online penetration, JD.com partnership, Dada-JD Daojia... Especially after 2024, Walmart's community store pilot in Shenzhen is also an important part of its strategy. Moreover, Walmart's community stores are not an isolated 'island' but a part of the omnichannel matrix. Hypermarkets are for slow browsing, wide categories, and one-stop experience; community stores meet fast shopping, high frequency, and small and beautiful; e-commerce plus delivery to home completes timeliness and scenarios, achieving 'one-hour delivery'. This is exactly the 'omnichannel one-chess-game' strategy that Walmart has adhered to for years. Community stores are just the latest addition, but behind them is deep support from digital supply chain and O2O systems. Rather than saying Walmart is doing 'small stores', it is better to say it is completing the final piece of the 'omnichannel ecosystem' puzzle. In many people's eyes, foreign retail in China has entered a 'ebb tide'. Carrefour sold itself, Tesco exited, Metro was marginalized. But Walmart offers another answer. It has neither been rigid nor impatient, but with patience and determination, it has adjusted its strategy step by step, striking the 'game-changing' transformation mark — a new Walmart. Walmart's community stores are not just an 'extension of hypermarkets' but a reshaping of industrial logic. With scaled implementation, it may become one of the most competitive models in urban retail. As we said at the beginning: This time, Walmart has found its true footing.