Walmart celebrated a landmark moment on September 16 with the grand opening of its newest location at Shin Kong Place in Chengdu's Wenjiang District. The store hits three milestones at once: the first entry into Wenjiang, the 14th store in Chengdu, and in a significant first for Walmart — the national launch of its next-generation store concept. The opening drew an enthusiastic response, with strong customer traffic sustained throughout the day.

Zac Zhu, Format President of Walmart Store, Walmart China said,

"As we evolve and upgrade, Walmart stays true to the philosophy of customer-first. We earn long-term trust through differentiated product offerings and a seamless omnichannel shopping experience.

Looking ahead, we are doubling down on investment, steadily growing our footprint across China while upgrading existing locations. That includes deepening our presence in the Sichuan market with Chengdu as the hub. The goal is to help customers across Walmart's omnichannel ecosystem to access products and services that deliver exceptional value — helping them save money and live better."

The momentum behind this launch has been built since April, when Walmart's Jinniu store at CapitaMall in Chengdu underwent its own transformation into the next-generation model. The results spoke for themselves — double-digit growth in both traffic and sales, along with a meaningful shift toward a younger customer base. The Jinniu remodel proved that the new store's promise — more inviting, fresher, and more convenient, genuinely lands with shoppers, providing a blueprint to accelerate the rollout nationwide. Since then, Walmart has upgraded roughly 70 stores this year and is on track to surpass 100 by year-end. New locations are also in the pipeline for cities including Nanning, Shenzhen, and Beijing.

A More Inviting Shopping Experience: Reimagined Space, Smarter Flow

Located on the basement level of Shin Kong Place in Wenjiang, the new store embraces the compact, single-floor layout that defines the next-generation model, spanning about 3,800 square meters. Designed for urban middle-class families and single-person households, the store has upgraded its product layout and displays based on customer shopping habits and traffic flow. The difference is especially striking in Walmart's powerhouse categories like fresh produce, food, beverages, and snacks.

From the moment you step inside, the store feels open and bright, designed around three guiding ideas: openness, efficiency, and the sheer pleasure of browsing.

Lower shelf heights and wider aisles open up sightlines and make products easier to reach. The single-floor U-shaped layout puts people at the center, The high-frequency essentials like fresh produce greet you right up front, meal ingredients are clustered into intuitive zones, and non-food areas come alive with scene-based displays. The result is a space that works equally well whether you're on a mission or simply wandering.

That balance is deliberate. Shoppers in a hurry can zip through purposefully designed zones and knock out their daily meal shopping in no time. Those with a more leisurely pace can take their time and stumble upon something unexpected, like a carefully chosen product, a new favorite.

A Fresher Lineup: Local Flavors Meet "Simple Freshness"

The Shin Kong Place store is a case study in Walmart's customer-first approach to assortment. It stays close to local tastes while speaking to the broader needs of urban middle-class families for food safety, freshness, health, and that intangible sense of delight. With around 10,000 SKUs in the mix, the private brand Marketside sits at the heart of the experience, bringing "fresher" to life across multiple dimensions.

Catering to Chengdu's beloved home hotpot culture, Walmart offers an comprehensive selection, from soup bases and side dishes to freshly cut meats and chilled seafood, so customers can get everything in one stop. The deli and snack sections also feature more spicy foods and braised items. Short-shelf-life fresh products such as freshly cut beef, cut fruit, sashimi and sushi, and chilled fish have also been very well received.

With the opening coinciding with the Mid-Autumn Festival, the store rolled out a full lineup of mooncake gift boxes and seasonal treats. Marketside launched a variety of distinctive mooncake gift boxes, adding fresh options beyond traditional flavors.

For everyday sharing and low-sugar preferences, Marketside also introduced multiple low-sugar mooncakes and simply packaged mooncakes options, most priced under 20 yuan, designed for daily enjoyment rather than formal gifting. Meanwhile, national and regional mooncake brands including Maxim's, Guangzhou Restaurant, Daoxiangcun, Pan Xiangji, and Jin Jiu are also available.

With autumn in the air and osmanthus in bloom, Marketside also launched a seasonal osmanthus collection, weaving a touch of the season into the shopping experience.

Since its upgrade in 2025, the private brand Marketside has embraced the philosophy of "simple freshness," and launched over a thousand products spanning milk, bakery, beverages, snacks, and fresh produce, gradually becoming a hallmark of Walmart's differentiated product strength and winning growing customer affection.

At the same time, Walmart holds firm to "Everyday Low Prices," so customers can purchase daily necessities at stable prices without navigating complex promotional rules, making shopping simpler and more reassuring.

The store also features numerous sampling stations, inviting customers to taste as they browse, further enhancing the hands-on shopping experience. From broader fresh assortment, expanded range of short-shelf-life items, to seasonal rotations, the Shin Kong Place store makes "fresher" something you can see, taste, and feel.

More Convenient: Store-based, Omnichannel, All-day Access

In recent years, Walmart has continued investing in a store-based omnichannel approach, building a comprehensive omnichannel matrix that spans multiple delivery ranges and timeframes through hypermarket, community store, and its e-commerce business represented by the Walmart App.

Hypermarkets like the Chengdu Shin Kong Place location are built for one-stop shopping, offering a rich selection of fresh produce, food, FMCG and non-food categories. Customers within a five-kilometer radius can place orders via the Walmart App and receive delivery in as fast as 30 minutes through the Fast Delivery service.

Community stores play a different role. Positioned as a "ten-minute walk" solution, they are deeply embedded in neighborhoods and have become the go-to choice for daily, quick replenishment. Over twenty community stores have already opened in Shenzhen, with an accelerated pace of expansion underway.

In addition, Walmart offers flexible fulfillment options covering broader delivery ranges and varied timeframes, including scheduled delivery and nationwide delibery, continuously improving delivery reach and speed.