• USA Today, Tuesday, September 21, 2010 10:55 AM

Wal-Mart will expound on its plans to expand into urban markets with smaller stores that carry fresh food during its meeting with analysts next month, Jayne O'Donnell reports on a story broken by AP. Target, its chief competitor, is expected to divulge more about its own urban strategy this Friday.

"Urban is just the next frontier," says Madison Riley, managing director of retail consulting firm Kurt Salmon Associates. "There are only so many places they can grow."

Wal-Mart has been testing a concept called Marketside -- stores averaging 15,000 square feet that focus on fresh food -- and also runs about 200 Neighborhood Market by Walmart stores, which are about 42,000 square feet. Wall Street Strategies analyst Brian Sozzi wrote in a note yesterday that the new 20,000-square-foot urban stores would likely combine the two formats.

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