Discount retail giant Walmart is revving up and heading back into a growth mode, with plans to build or expand more than 150 stores in the U.S. over the next five years after essentially halting domestic retail brick-and-mortar openings.
John Furner, president and CEO of Walmart U.S., also said on Wednesday that during the next 12 months the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer plans to remodel 650 stores across 47 states and Puerto Rico, "creating tens of thousands of jobs supporting these projects." Walmart is also working on developing a coast-to-coast network of affordable electric vehicle fast-charging stations, Furner posted on Walmart's website.
The last time Walmart, the biggest U.S. retailer based on revenue, opened a brand-new store was in November 2021, when it debuted locations in Ceres, California, Miami, and Yaphank, New York, a company spokesman told CoStar News in an email. Walmart has about 4,600 stores in its fleet now.
The first two new stores under the initiative, both planned as Neighborhood Market formats, are set to open later this spring at 6861 E. U.S. Highway 98 in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, and 835 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive NW in Atlanta. Neighborhood Markets are small-format Walmart stores that are about 38,000 square feet and offer fresh produce, meat and dairy products, bakery and deli items, household supplies, health and beauty aids and an onsite pharmacy.
"We’re also finalizing construction plans on 12 new projects we intend to start this year, along with converting one of our smaller locations to a Walmart Supercenter," Furner said. "These efforts represent millions of dollars in capital investment of labor, supplies and tax revenue, which benefit their respective communities. And they’ll help us reach and serve even more customers."
Walmart began to put the brakes on store expansion in the face of competition from online behemoth Amazon. The retailer instead spent on improving and expanding its e-commerce capabilities and distribution network and modernizing its existing stores. During the past year or so it closed locations in some markets, including Washington, D.C., and Chicago.
Now "Walmart is planning to build or convert more than 150 stores, while simultaneously continuing our program to remodel existing stores," Furner said. In some cases, that will entail transforming smaller stores into the retailer's large Supercenter formats, but it will mostly be debuting new locations.
The Wall Street Journal earlier reported news of the expansion.
"These new and remodeled stores will better enable us to meet and exceed customer expectations whether in a store, online at Walmart.com, or through one of our mobile apps," Furner said.
Walmart first tested, and is now broadly rolling out — at its new locations and remodeled ones — its "Store of the Future" concept, which features apparel and housewares displays, improved layouts, expanded product selections, and new technology.
The store revamps have been an ongoing process, with Walmart investing over $9 billion alone. in the past two years to upgrade more than 1,400 stores across the country.
Walmart said the new stores will include more energy-efficient equipment and lighting, and lower-impact refrigerants.