Walmart said Monday that it unveiled a new logo as part of a “comprehensive brand refresh.”
The US-based retailer boasted in a press release that the new look – its first change since 2008 – reflected its evolution. In its online “Brand Center,” Walmart praised its color palette (true blue and spark yellow), its font (“Everyday Sans”) and its trademark “Spark” symbol, calling the latter “a beacon that guides customers.”
But some people online noticed something else about the new logo.
“It looks the same,” wrote someone on X, one of many people with similar feelings.
“I can’t believe someone got paid to do this,” another person posted.
“A complete overhaul is long overdue, and while some may be unhappy with this radical change, it was about time,” another joked.
Walmart is the largest retailer in the world, employing approximately 1.6 million people in the United States and approximately 100,000 people in Canada.
Its founder, Sam Walton, opened the first store in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962, while also launching its first logo: the word WALMART in clear blue font, according to the Walmart Museum.
According to Business Insider, Walmart introduced seven different logos before the latest one. This includes moving the text from WALMART to WAL-MART to WAL*MART and finally to Walmart as we know it now: one word, lower case, no hyphen or asterisk.
In 2008, according to the Walmart Museum, the company added the yellow “spark,” representing “the spark of inspiration” that led Walton to open the first store.
In its announcement, Walmart said the updated wordmark was “inspired by Sam Walton’s classic trucker hat.”
The update “represents our evolving capabilities and longstanding commitment to serving our customers of today and tomorrow,” said William White, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Walmart US, in Monday’s press release.
“Meaningful Differences”
Not all reactions to the not-so-new logo were negative. Some design and marketing sites, for example, called it a welcome “gloss” but pointed out that it wouldn’t make sense for Walmart to drastically change its recognizable logo.
“The logo itself is an example of exquisite simplicity,” writes the editor of the design website Creative Bloq.
“While parts of the internet are puzzled by the ‘subtle’ changes, Walmart, as a major brand, had no reason to completely change its logo – and the design team did an excellent job highlighting the best parts of the existing design to achieve that . “Brand Goals.”
The changes may be difficult to see to the “unobserved eye,” writes Fast Company’s website, explaining that the word “Walmart” has been redrawn, the spark has been separated from the text and the blue is lighter.
“You may say it’s subtle, but there are meaningful differences,” White is quoted as saying in the Fast Company article.
And as Forbes notes, Walmart “didn’t become worth over $735 billion by throwing away money.” There was probably a professional team behind the update, even if the changes seem minor.
“From continuity to staying on top of current trends, there will be very good reasons for the seemingly minor change in Walmart’s new logo.”
Still, that hasn’t stopped people online from having a little fun.
“Is this a joke?” someone posted on X.
“A lot of people hate the Walmart logo redesign, but if you’ve ever been a third grade girl, you can see that the new logo is completely different – the old one is a sun and the new one is a flower,” posted X -User Kelley K.
CBC Sports’ Brittany MacLean and Shireen Ahmed rate their favorite Northern Super League logos.
