• The Financial Times, Friday, May 16, 2008 10:15 AM

Wal-Mart has placed job advertisements for four Marketside markets it is building that describe it as "the neighborhood market for busy people with a taste for fresh and delicious food." That's a direct challenge to the similarly sized Fresh & Easy markets being opened by British rival Tesco in the same communities near Phoenix.

The retailer is also planning to prepare and serve food in the stores themselves, a new direction for Wal-Mart that mirrors the approach of more upscale retailers such as Whole Foods. The stores will include a kitchen, food counters and seating for up to nine people, according to planning documents.

The Marketside format is a third of the size of most of Wal-Mart's 134 Neighborhood Market supermarkets, and less than a tenth of the size of most of its more than 3,400 superstores. The stores will be trading under a logo depicting a pile of stylized vegetables and fruits, with the Marketside name in green and a small blue star providing the only branding reference to Wal-Mart.

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