Walmart Rolls Out New “Jumbo” Signage

LOUISVILLE, Ky. April 1, 2014 – In an effort to more honestly communicate and serve its primary shopping consumers, Walmart today announced the launch of the newest member of their global weight-friendly initiative family. Meet Jumbo. Jumbo is a entirely new graphic icon that will be featured prominently on parking lot signage, in restrooms, and on the new double-wide check-out lanes coming to Walmart stores.

The new placards, designed by a team of award winning graphic artists, were created to more honestly communicate the nature of the needs of those who require extra assistance in Walmart Stores. Jumbo will be rolling out first at North County San Diego Walmart stores and then to the rest of the 11,302 Walmart stores around the world.

“Walmart is continually looking for innovative ways to increase the efficiency of our communications with customers,” said Stout Gutmeyer, senior vice president of global weight-friendly initiatives. “We felt we were doing the handicapped community a disservice by insinuating that all people who need extra help are confined to wheelchairs, when this is clearly not the case. The fact is the vast majority of those who have trouble easily accessing our stores are simply too fat to walk very far.”

In addition to the added signage, Wal-Mart has promised to increase the number of parking spots located close to the entrance by 15 percent. Those new parking spaces will feature the Jumbo signs and the jumbo logo stenciled to the pavement and will be available to anyone who needs to park closer to the entrance, but who may not be officially documented as physically challenged.

But what about the loss of parking spots up front? Won’t thin customers be upset? “What we’re finding is that with the recent “quantified self” movement, most of our fit shoppers (and we so have them) actually prefer to park their cars far away from the front of the store so they can log more steps on their personal fitness tracking devices,” Gutmeyer said. “So everyone is happy with the new parking.”

For more on Walmart, follow the jump.About Walmart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) helps people around the world spend money and live fatter – anytime and anywhere – in retail stores, online, and through their mobilehome devices. Each week, more than 245 million customers and members visit our 11,302 stores under 71 banners in 27 countries and ecommerce websites in 10 countries. With fiscal year 2014 sales of over $473 billion, Walmart employs more than 2 million associates worldwide. Walmart continues to be a leader in sustainability, corporate philanthropy, weight-friendliness and employment opportunity. Additional information about Walmart can be found by visiting http://corporate.walmart.com on Facebook at http://facebook.com/walmart and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/walmart. Online merchandise sales are available at http://www.walmart.com and http://www.samsclub.com.