CLINTON » Step inside this massive Wal-Mart Supercenter in northern Davis County and you'll see some fairly dramatic changes for a retailer known for its cavernous and often cluttered stores.

The aisles are wider, the shelves aren't so high, and the whole place appears less jam-packed with merchandise. On two main walkways from the entrances, you can see all the way from one end of the store to the other. Pallets of goods that used to be peddled in the middle of walkways are gone. The old grayish interior paint scheme has given way to cheery pastels of blue, green, yellow and orange.

The Utah store is one of the first nationwide to get this new look, which is projected to be in 80 percent of Wal-Mart stores across the country within five years, company officials say.

Why these changes, and why now? Amid the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, the Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has gained market share as recession-weary consumers have looked for new ways to save money.

But after the economy recovers, the company wants to keep shoppers who shifted their buying patterns to their stores only to find some aspects of the Wal-Mart experience, well, annoying.

For example, some consumers who come in for groceries don't like how far apart the food and other necessities are in a Wal-Mart Supercenter.

Pam Wright of West Point, is one of those shoppers. On Saturday, as she was shopping in the Clinton store, she said her favorite thing about the remodel is that the food, personal care and pharmacy are in the same area, much like a standard grocery store.

So if she doesn't want to, she doesn't have to push a shopping cart through the entire store just to get the basics that her family needs each week.

"I'm just happy I don't have to go all the way over there any more just to get a bottle of shampoo," said Wright, pointing to a far-off corner.

Others just can't stand Wal-Mart's propensity to cram and the experience of shopping in an aisle between towering shelves.

Adam Waudby of Sunset, who came in to Wal-Mart to buy a laptop, said he was impressed by the overall de-cluttering. Waudby, who also shops at Best Buy, also said he was surprised to see how easy it was to find what he needed since the remodel.

"It looks a lot more organized over here in the electronics section," he said. "It's a big difference."

While most retail experts and analysts say the retailer was due for a new look and that the changes it has made make sense, the move probably will do little to help Wal-Mart appeal to more affluent customers or those interested in trendy or fashionable products like Target has.

Some of those customers will never shop at Wal-Mart. And some of those that are doing so now will simply go back to other retailers when the economy improves, they predict.

Wal-Mart's "efforts to win over more-affluent customers flopped," Morningstar analyst Joseph Beaulieu said in a report released Thursday. "Although Wal-Mart has room to add some higher-end products to its merchandise mix in order to attract a wider range of customers, we think there is a natural limit to how high the company can realistically move."

But Wal-Mart continues to try. At the Clinton store, a fair amount of space is devoted to the retailer's exclusive Miley Cyrus and Max Azria clothing line for teenagers. In the cosmetics area, there's a shelf full of perfume by popular singer Mariah Carey.

Picking what gets space and what doesn't in the stores, however, has become more challenging with less shelf and floor space, said Ed Davis, a co-manager at the Clinton store.

While the store still has 10 types of blenders and more than a dozen coffee makers, "instead of eight different types of ranch-style beans, maybe now we'll have four," said Ed Davis, Clinton store co-manager. "But one thing we have more of is space."