With fresh food, general merchandise and pharmacies in one store, Wal-Mart is giving other retails strong competition.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is planning to expand its fleet of smaller-format stores this fiscal year, opening an expected 115 locations. The Neighborhood Market and Express locations will account for about 40% of stores the retailer opens, the Wall Street Journal reported.
“You’ll see us increasingly moving into smaller formats,” said Bill Simon, head of Wal-Mart’s U.S. division, at an industry conference Tuesday. “They compete really well against multiple channels.”
Wal-Mart considers smaller formats to be below 60,000-square-feet.
Simon noted that the smaller-format stores, with their fresh food, general merchandise, pharmacies and online offerings, provide a full package of products and services that competitors lack. “We can deliver price, and assortment and fresh food and Rx,” he said.
Even as it grows its smaller-format stores, Wal-Mart isn’t changing or abandoning its supercenter strategy— about 90% of Wal-Mart’s fleet remain supercenters and large stores, and the company plans to add about 125 big box locations this year.
