Save money. Live better. Mmm-mmm-good

It's the end of an era at Wal-Mart.

After 19 years, the world's largest retailer has jettisoned its "Always low prices" slogan with a tagline the company says will conjure a warmer, friendlier image.

"Save Money. Live Better" debuted Wednesday in TV commercials in which actors portraying shoppers banter about how Wal-Mart helped them to save cash they need in a marketplace squeezed by steep gasoline prices.

It's a good thing.

Mmm-mmm-good.

Good to the last drop.

Wal-Mart also is touting the results of a study it commissioned from Global Insight showing that as of 2006, the merchant saved the average American family $2,500 each year thanks to those always low prices, up 7.3 percent from $2,329 in 2004. That's a lot of mac and cheese.

Further, Wal-Mart led a 3-percent decline in overall consumer prices for all items from 1985 to 2006, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, which includes prices for goods and services.