As their bigger warehouse stores near a saturation point in the United States, Wal-Mart and Home Depot are rolling out buildings that are much smaller even as they tweak the offerings of existing
stores to meet consumers changing needs.
Wal-Mart is revising the layout of its Neighborhood Market stores--which are typically about 39,000 square feet--to add more frozen food and
bakery items and make over the health and beauty departments. It plans to open 15 to 20 new Neighborhood Markets over the next year; it currently has 112. Its supercenters average 187,000 square
feet.
Last month, Home Depot opened stores that measure 28,600 to 50,000 square feet--smaller than its average 105,000-square-foot format--in California. George Whalin, president of
Retail Management Consultants, says smaller stores make sense for Home Depot, but pose challenges for Wal-Mart, which "is so used to having a bigger palate to paint on."
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