Dive Brief:
- Wal-Mart will introduce two new bakery products from Grammy-winner Patti LaBelle following the overwhelming success of her sweet potato pies during the holidays.
- A new vanilla pound cake and a caramel cake will be sold under the Patti’s Good Life brand at U.S. Wal-Mart stores.
- The brand already has a line of marinades and sauces, while LaBelle’s name also appears on a line of bedding sold at Linens n Things.
Dive Insight:
Wal-Mart unexpectedly cooked up a hit with Patti LaBelle’s sweet-potato pies during the holidays, and is now set to build that success into a full-fledged bakery line. Following the emergence of a viral YouTube video from Patti LaBelle fan James Wright Chanel, the pies disappeared from shelves throughout the country ahead of Thanksgiving—so fast that Wal-Mart quickly made the one-off seasonal item a year-round offering.
LaBelle’s Good Life brand includes marinades and sauces, but the $3.98 pies have been its biggest seller so far. The brand’s even-more-indulgent iced vanilla pound cake and caramel cake will retail for $6.44 and $13.94, respectively, and additional LaBelle desserts are already in development.
There’s no telling whether the new desserts will inspire the same enthusiasm as the sweet potato pies, but they should help Wal-Mart build out its bakery offerings. Groceries account for 56% of its U.S. store sales, and with heavy competition from Amazon in most other departments, they are an increasingly important part of getting customers in the door.
