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Walmart announced Monday that it did presented a new logopart of a “comprehensive brand refresh.”
The US-based retailer boasted in a press release that the new look — its first change since 2008 — reflects its evolution. In your online “brand center,” Walmart applauded its color palette (true blue and shimmery yellow), font (“everyday sans”) and trademark “spark” symbol, calling the latter a “beacon that guides shoppers.”
But some people online noticed something else about the new logo.
“Looks the same,” he wrote someone on Xone of many people with similar feelings.
“I can’t believe someone got paid for this,” published second person.
“A complete overhaul is long overdue, and while some may find this radical change uncomfortable, it’s about time,” someone else joked.
It’s Walmart the world’s largest retaileremploying some 1.6 million people in the US and approx 100,000 people in Canada.
Its founder, Sam Walton, opened the first store in 1962 in Rogers, Ark., and launched his first logo at the same time: the word WALMART written in flat blue letters, according to Walmart Museum.
According to Business InsiderWalmart has rolled out seven different logos before the latest one. This includes moving the text from WALMART to WAL-MART to WAL*MART to, finally, Walmart as we know it now: one word, lowercase, no hyphen or asterisk.
In 2008, the company added a yellow “spark,” representing the “spark of inspiration” that led Walton to create the first store, according to Walmart Museum.
Walmart said in a statement that the updated sign was “inspired by Sam Walton’s classic trucker hat.”
The update “demonstrates our development capabilities and long-standing commitment to serving our customers today and tomorrow,” said William White, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Walmart US in Press release on Monday.
‘Strong differences’
Not all reactions to the not-so-new logo were negative. Some website design and marketingfor example, he called it a welcome “glow” while noting that it wouldn’t make sense for Walmart to drastically change its signature logo.
“The logo itself is an example of simplicity done beautifully,” writes the website’s design editor Creative block.
“While parts of the internet are baffled by the ‘subtle’ changes, since big brand Walmart had no reason to completely change its logo — and the design team did an outstanding job of highlighting the best parts of the existing design to achieve the brand’s goals.”
The changes could be hard to see “to the unobservant eye,” writes the Fast company website, while explaining that the word Walmart has been redrawn, the spark is separated from the text and the blue is lighter.
“You can tell it’s subtle, but there are significant differences,” White was quoted as saying in the Fast Company article.
And like Forbes notesWalmart “didn’t become worth more than $735 billion by throwing money away.” It’s likely that a professional team was behind the update, even if the changes seem minor.
“From continuity to following current trends, there will be very good reasons behind the seemingly minor change in Walmart’s new logo.”
Still, that didn’t stop people on the internet from having a little fun.
“Is this a joke?” published someone on X.
“A lot of people hate Walmart’s logo redesign, but if you’ve ever been a third-grade girl, you can tell the new logo is completely different — the old is a sun, the new is a flower,” X user Kelley K posted.
CBC Sports’ Brittany MacLean and Shireen Ahmed rank their favorite logos from the Northern Super League.
