New York: Wal-Mart Stores Inc has upgraded its beef to certified Angus across the US as the fight for food shoppers’ cash intensifies.
For the past year, the nation’s biggest grocer worked with meat giants including Tyson Foods Inc and Cargill Inc. to secure a supply of Angus steaks and roasts at no additional cost to consumers, said Scott Neal, Wal-Mart’s senior vice president of meat, seafood and quality control. The higher-quality cuts have been available in all of Wal-Mart’s 4,700 US stores since March, but the retailer hasn’t announced or advertised the shift yet.
The move is part of Wal-Mart’s response to rapidly intensifying competition: German discounters Aldi and Lidl are expanding aggressively and Amazon.com Inc’s purchase of Whole Foods Markets Inc threatens to upend the industry. Wal-Mart also wants to entice shoppers by offering curbside pickup of online grocery orders and improving the quality of fresh foods like produce and meat that are a key draw for customers.
“All purveyors of food are being forced to step up their game,” said Bill Lapp, president of consulting firm Advanced Economic Solutions. “There is such disruption in the grocery store sector that you have to do something.”
