According to a report in the Arkansas Democrat, Wal-Mart (Bentonville, Ark.) is building a new facility in Missouri to house store fixtures, signage, cash registers and the like.
The building, in McDonald County, Mo., will be a so-called “star center,” reports the newspaper, used to warehouse non-merchandise materials for the Bentonville retail giant. “Rather than stock food or apparel goods for display in stores, the center will be used as a transport and storage hub for the 'guts' of a store.”
“It's a new concept not just for Wal-Mart, but throughout the retail sector,” the paper says. “Usually, items used in store rollouts are shipped straight to stores from vendors. By centralizing the distribution of these materials, the company hopes to save costs and keep a better handle on the shipment of goods.”
“It will be a lot more efficient,” said Tom Williams, a company spokesman. The company broke ground on the project in June and plans to complete it this summer. Wal-Mart would not say how large the buildings are.
“Most companies don¹t open so many stores that it would make sense to do that,” said Matthew Waller, assistant professor of transportation and logistics at the University of Arkansas Sam M. Walton College of Business. But during its fiscal year beginning in February, Wal-Mart expects to open 165 stores. Given those expansion plans, it's easy to see why Wal-Mart would want to centralize store materials in a warehouse, said Steven Platt of S.K. Platt & Co., a Hinsdale, Ill., financial-services firm that advises companies involved in the $40 billion-a-year store buildout industry.
Platt said running store equipment distribution in-house could help Wal-Mart open stores on schedule. “If it's supposed to open January first, it better not open January second” and miss a day's worth of revenues, Platt said. “In Wal-Mart¹s case, that's big dough.” Plus, he said, the company might be able to get a better price on store equipment from suppliers by centralizing operations. If Wal-Mart can store these items cheaper than suppliers, it would be able to place larger single orders, rather than making them sporadically. By buying in bulk, said Platt, the retailer can ask suppliers for price concessions.