Dollar General Buys 41 Walmart Express Stores
July 27 2016 - 7:20PM
Dow Jones News
After abandoning a small-store strategy to compete with dollar
and convenience stores, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has sold off a raft of
its failed locations to Dollar General Corp.
Dollar General said Wednesday it bought 41 of the former Walmart
Express stores in almost a dozen states. The retailer plans to
relocate many existing stores to the slightly larger locations,
adding fresh produce and meat to shelves, the company said in a
news release. Dollar General spokeswoman Mary Winn Pilkington
declined to provide details of the transaction.
Wal-Mart launched its Walmart Express small-format stores in
2011 to compete with the rising popularity of dollar stores and to
combat slowing growth from its cavernous Supercenters. But in
January Wal-Mart closed all 102 Walmart Express locations as part
of a rare retreat in the U.S. market.
At the time, Wal-Mart Chief Executive Doug McMillon said the
closures were "necessary to keep the company strong and positioned
for the future," allowing employees to focus on growing
Supercenters, Neighborhood Markets and online sales. A spokesman
for Wal-Mart declined to comment on the Dollar General sale.
By October, Dollar General plans to open the new locations and
add them to a growing list of slightly larger stores that stock
some perishable food, dubbed internally "Dollar General Plus," said
Ms. Pilkington. Currently about 120 of its stores carry fresh
produce, she said.
Small dollar stores like Dollar General are usually located
closer to residential areas than the typical Wal-Mart and sell
everyday staples in smaller sizes to hit lower prices. It is a
concept that has resonated with shoppers since the recession,
allowing the two largest dollar chains to add thousands of
stores.
Dollar General plans to grow from 13,000 locations to 20,000
U.S. stores by 2020 and wants to add more perishable food, health
and beauty care items to aisles, executives have said in recent
months. Those items tend to bring consumers into stores more often,
an important driver of sales at a time when more shopping is
shifting online.
Write to Sarah Nassauer at sarah.nassauer@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 27, 2016 19:05 ET (23:05 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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