Nutrisystem Announces Distribution at Walmart, Cue Your Eye Roll.

Initially I rolled my eyes at this press release.  Honestly.  

You know I am a Wal*Mart shopper, in fact I am an ex Wal*Mart Employee as is Mr. MM.  (You're looking at Department Manager Beth here, and Assistant Store Manager Bob.  Gack, I know.  But, tis true.  They opened a store across the street from where we were living at the time, and the both of us got job there until I quit nearly immediately -- while he worked for peanuts and had the best commute EVER.)

I spend a good $300 a week there, and the company has received a large portion of my income for years.  I have to admit to it, because it's true. 

I shop other grocery stores for a few things, but typically, we're all Wal*Mart.   Even if I did not WANT to spend grocery money there, I do, as the costs of where I would have liked to go (WHOLEFOODSWHOLEFOODS) were quite prohibitive for a family of six on one and a fourth incomes.  (That, and the times I go to Whole Foods, I'm surrounded by a virtual luxury car sales lot and $800 baby strollers.  Wal*Mart shoppers don't so much Fit In with our $1 flip-flops and Garanimal-clothed babies.)

But one of my frustrations with The Wal*Martz has always been not being able to find diet-appropriate choices, and being sucked into several aisles of Fat Food.  At this time, I currently walk past at least two full aisles in the grocery section if I can get away with it, seriously, a FULL 60+ foot aisle of orange and black bags of Halloween Candy?  Is this necessary?  It's like an epileptic hypoglycemics playground!

So, yeah, as much as it feels like bringing a plan like nutrisystem into a place like Wal*Mart is just ass backwards, it does make sense.  We ARE it's target customers.  The Wal*Mart customers.  I just want to know if they can place it in tempting locales like the CANDY AISLE and in the middle of a toy aisle.  Don't put it in the pharmacy area -- I mean -- who actually buys the appetite suppressants and diet bars THERE?  (Besides peeps like me who grab their Atkins Coconut Bars before hitting the carb aisles... hoping it will help deflect the goodies jumping into our carts.)

Wal*Mart is marketing SODA and CHIPS in non-food aisles of the store -- and it works! 

Why not put some diet/lifestyle eating plans in the SAME PLACES to target us -- the people that buy the stuff? (Don't say we don't -- go have a look at the products -- a lot are the same or Quite Similar to products you might already use in other plans, or buy online.)

Do you think this is a good idea?  Placing diet plans like this in Wal*Mart?

This is a Press Release, hence the commercial-ness of it.

HORSHAM, Pa., Oct. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Nutrisystem, Inc. (Nasdaq: NTRI), a leading provider of weight management programs and services, has aligned with Walmart to offer customers the convenience of a Nutrisystem 14-Day Starter Program for the first time in the retail channel.

Hitting shelves at the brink of the holiday rush and leading into the height of the 2010 New Year's resolution season, the Nutrisystem 14-Day Starter Program will start rolling out nationwide at over 3,200 Walmart locations the first week of October, and will be available on Walmart.com.

"Our alliance with Walmart is an extension of our goal to consistently offer consumers a convenient, affordable and effective weight loss option," said Will Auchincloss, Senior Vice President of Business Development at Nutrisystem. "Walmart provides us with a new and valuable distribution channel to broaden our customer base and build awareness of our product at the retail level."