The nation's first urban Walmart Express store is slated to open Wednesday on Chicago's South Side, part of a highly anticipated test that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. hopes will help turn around a two-year U.S. sales slump.
The world's largest retailer, best known for its football field-size supercenters, plans to roll out 15 Walmart Express stores this year in three test markets: Chicago, Richfield, N.C., and the discount chain's home state of Arkansas. The small stores, typically 10,000 to 15,000 square feet, are one-tenth the size of a standard Walmart supercenter and carry fresh groceries, pharmacy and health and beauty aids.
The new convenience format is aimed at staving off the rise of dollar stores, which thrived during the recession and continue to draw customers away from Wal-Mart Stores, analysts said. The Bentonville, Ark.-based company has had to rely on overseas stores to fuel revenue growth as same-stores sales at its U.S. stores, its biggest division, have slipped for eight consecutive quarters.
"This is Wal-Mart going on the offensive," said Jim Hertel, managing partner at Willard Bishop, a Barrington-based grocery store consulting firm. "They're using these little stores as a way to combat the pesky little competitors that are opening up everywhere."
Wal-Mart plans to open five stores in each test market. The company already has signed leases for four of the five Chicago locations. The first store, opening Wednesday, is located on the outskirts of Chatham Market, a shopping center at 83rd Street and Stewart Avenue on the South Side. A Walmart supercenter, slated to open next year, is also under construction at Chatham Market.
The other Chicago Express locations are at Broadway and Addison streets in Wrigleyville, scheduled to open later this year; at South Western Avenue and West 71st Street, slated to open early next year; and at Chicago Avenue and Franklin Street, scheduled to open in the spring of 2012.
The world's largest retailer, best known for its football field-size supercenters, plans to roll out 15 Walmart Express stores this year in three test markets: Chicago, Richfield, N.C., and the discount chain's home state of Arkansas. The small stores, typically 10,000 to 15,000 square feet, are one-tenth the size of a standard Walmart supercenter and carry fresh groceries, pharmacy and health and beauty aids.
"This is Wal-Mart going on the offensive," said Jim Hertel, managing partner at Willard Bishop, a Barrington-based grocery store consulting firm. "They're using these little stores as a way to combat the pesky little competitors that are opening up everywhere."
Wal-Mart plans to open five stores in each test market. The company already has signed leases for four of the five Chicago locations. The first store, opening Wednesday, is located on the outskirts of Chatham Market, a shopping center at 83rd Street and Stewart Avenue on the South Side. A Walmart supercenter, slated to open next year, is also under construction at Chatham Market.
The other Chicago Express locations are at Broadway and Addison streets in Wrigleyville, scheduled to open later this year; at South Western Avenue and West 71st Street, slated to open early next year; and at Chicago Avenue and Franklin Street, scheduled to open in the spring of 2012.
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