Last week Walmart reported that it plans to accelerate the growth of its small-format stores – mostly Neighborhood Markets – and projected that they will open between 120 and 150 of them in fiscal 2015, compared to 120 in the current fiscal year. The company also said they plan to open 115 supercenters in the next fiscal year.
According to President and CEO Bill Simon, “We will accelerate growth of our Neighborhood Markets because of their strong returns, consistent comp-sales performance and double-digit net sales increases; and we will continue to build and leverage the supercenter format, which remains our primary format for growth.”
In addition, Walmart expects to open between 17 and 22 new Sam’s Clubs stores in fiscal 2015 at a cost of $1 billion.
