Wal-Mart hungry for healthier in-store fast food
Posted on Sunday, May 11, 2008
TULSA — Walk into a Wal-Mart with hunger pangs, and you will have the chance to order a cheeseburger and fries from a McDonald’s restaurant inside.
In a matter of months, customers could have a different choice, perhaps a panini and a smoothie.
Camille’s Sidewalk Cafe, a rapidly growing Tulsa company with 1, 000 restaurants open or in development throughout the world, entered into an agreement earlier this year to begin franchising its brand inside Wal-Mart stores across the country.
The deal could see the first Camille’s store in a Wal-Mart by the fall. The company’s 46-yearold founder, David Rutkauskas, wants to eventually dish up his healthy fast food in 300 stores.
Bentonville-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. declined to offer details on the partnership because the company had not finalized the location of the first store.
The idea is to take advantage of a clientele that wants to feel better about what it eats.
Wal-Mart has been a retail giant for decades, luring mostly working- and middle-class families into their big-box stores with discounts on everything from lawn tools to dog food.
In the late 1990 s, Camille’s pioneered a formula that combined the cleanliness and appeal of a casual dining experience with the speed of a fast-food restaurant.
The food at Camille’s is a stark contrast to items on a typical McDonald’s menu, and includes paninis (focaccia bread filled with fresh ingredients then grilled ), flatbread pizzas with names like “Zorba the Greek” and “Bangkok Thai,” sandwiches, hot wraps and smoothies from “Blueberries Cozumel” to “Banana Split Swirl.” Then, there’s the demographic both stores covet: soccer moms.
“That’s the base retailers salivate over, frankly,” said Rutkauskas, who put up his house and cars to start the business in 1996 with his wife, Camille. “The soccer-mom demographic gives you that perfect word of mouth.” Camille’s won’t be Wal-Mart’s first foray into healthier eating. Several years ago, Subway stores began popping up in its locations across the country.
“Their way of thinking is Wal-Mart wants to do what’s best for their customers,” Rutkauskas said. “There’s still a percentage of their customers who want McDonald’s, but there’s another percentage who want something healthier, newer, fresher, and that’s where we come in.” Rutkauskas sounds comfortable taking the risk that his stores will be a hit with Wal-Mart shoppers because he has spent years learning what customers want.
His first Camille’s was a 250-square-foot kiosk tucked under an escalator in the Sears wing of a mall. He and his wife sold coffee, smoothies, sandwiches and wraps.
That was 1996. Now, a Camille’s opens every 10 days somewhere in the world. Recent locations include New York, Puerto Rico and Bahrain.
Rutkauskas hopes to build a $ 100 million company by 2010.
The true test will be the customers, who may not be used to hearing “upscale eatery” and “Wal-Mart” in the same sentence.
On a recent afternoon, Jenks, Okla., residents Dwight and Shelley Durant slipped into a local Camille’s for a quick nosh after a bike ride.
Their favorites at the eatery: the breakfast wraps and the turkey sandwich.
So, would they stop at a Camille’s if it was inside a Wal-Mart ?
“It would kind of depend,” Dwight Durant said. “If I felt like I wasn’t eating in a Wal-Mart.” It might take a little more convincing for Tulsa resident Kristy Elias. She normally doesn’t eat at Wal-Mart anyway, but said she would be willing to try “anything that’s convenient.” It’s a retail gamble both stores are willing to take.
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