Wal-Mart Announces New-Store Plans

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (Bentonville, Ark.) has announced it will open 81 new stores and clubs across the country in March 2008.

The 81 stores and clubs will be located in 30 states, including seven openings in North Carolina, six in Illinois, five each in Michigan and Florida, four in Ohio and three each in Indiana, Iowa, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin.

Included among these stores are two additional new HE.2 (high-efficiency) prototypes designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and use 25 percent less energy than a standard Wal-Mart Supercenter. Wal-Mart plans to open a total of four HE.2 prototypes. The first opened in January in Romeoville, Ill., and following the March openings one more will be built by the end of the year.

At the same time, the world’s largest retailer said it will moderate the growth of its supercenters in the U.S. The company opened 195 supercenters in the United States in the last fiscal year, 30 percent fewer than in the previous year, and it projected that it will open 170 supercenters in the current fiscal year ending Jan, 31, 2009 and 140 more in the fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 2010. And, the company said, it will focus on expansions and relocations of existing discount stores.