Wal-Mart Express eyes East Texas towns

Chuck Bartels

Wal-Mart Express

People walk in front of a yet-to-open Wal-Mart Express store in Gentry, Ark., Thursday, June 2, 2011. The company has rolled out plans for several of its smallest-format stores — called Wal-Mart Express — in small towns around East Texas, with mixed reactions from officials in those cities. (AP Photo/Chuck Bartels)

Know your Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart store formats vary in average size:

Supercenter: 182,000 square feet

Discount stores: 106,000 square feet

Neighborhood Markets: 38,000 square feet

Express stores: 15,000 square feet

Source: Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Why smaller stores?

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has arguably mastered the science of large discount stores. So why the move to smaller stores such as Wal-Mart Express and Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market?

The company has said the smaller stores offer customers flexibility, especially to those who live in areas that lack larger stores. It also is seeking faster growth than can be achieved through its traditional stores.

Wal-Mart has become so sold on smaller stores that the company has expanded its original capital forecast for 2014 and expects to add about 300 small stores this fiscal year, doubling its initial forecast of about 150 stores. It will maintain its plan to open about 115 new Supercenters this year.

And its stores could get smaller yet.

Wal-Mart is testing a concept called Wal-Mart to Go. It is only 5,000 square feet and features coffee and cold refreshments as well as snacks. It is a modified convenience store selling fresh food, some prepared meals, some grocery and a few general merchandise items such as movies and seasonal items.

Posted: Sunday, July 6, 2014 4:00 am | Updated: 8:44 am, Sun Jul 6, 2014.

By Jo Lee Ferguson Special to the News-Journal

Retail giant Wal-Mart is thinking small in East Texas.

The company has rolled out plans for several of its smallest-format stores — called Wal-Mart Express — in small towns around East Texas, with mixed reactions from officials in those cities.Naples, Tatum and Lone Lone Star are among the towns that could see construction starting soon on Wal-Mart Express stores.“I’m not against any business,” said Naples Mayor Danny Mills. “I want to see this town grow more eventually, but at the time it’s really got the people kind of stirred up, and I don’t know whether it will wind up good or bad.”

The Wal-Mart Express format emerged in 2011, with company information saying it is Wal-Mart’s “smallest footprint” and an “ideal format for urban and rural areas that lack access to larger stores.” The Express Stores generally are about 15,000 square feet, with groceries, general merchandise and, sometimes, pharmacies. Some also sell gasoline.

The Arkansas-based retailer operates the smaller stores nationwide in addition to its traditional discount stores, Supercenters and Neighborhood Markets, such as one set to open this fall in the Spring Hill area of Longview.

Concerns in Naples

For Naples, Wal-Mart’s timing is less than ideal.The city previously had a grocery store that closed suddenly, and residents there had to drive to Mount Pleasant or Daingerfield “to get a gallon of milk,” for about two years, Mills said.“(Wal-Mart) started making (Wal-Mart Express) two or three years ago and trying them out in suburban areas,” Mills said. He recounted calling Wal-Mart many times to try to convince the company to build one in his town of about 1,400 people. “They finally told me, ‘Your place is too small.’ ”

Then, Naples landed another grocery store. Oklahoma-based Pruett’s Food spent $1.5 million building “a very nice grocery store” in Naples, Mills said. It was a “godsend,” with people from surrounding areas coming to shop in Naples.“It just opened when (Wal-Mart) announced they were going to try to put (a Wal-Mart Express) here,” Mills said. “I just hate that it may hurt (Pruett’s.)”Pruett’s has three other stores in Oklahoma and one in Arkansas.

Some Naples residents are irritated by news of Wal-Mart’s new interest, Mills said, but the town can’t stop a business from locating there.The city of Naples has approved a zoning change for the Express store, which will be on U.S. 67. The store will be about 11,000 square feet, Mills said, and the company expects the store to open this year.“This is going to be an interesting situation,” he said.

Mills said he was uncertain what products the store would offer, but knows it will have gasoline pumps outside and offer convenience-store type items.“We don’t know if it’s going to hurt or help.”

Lone Star ‘excited’

Wal-Mart said recently it had about 20 Express stores among its roughly 60 “small format” stores in the U.S. By contrast, it had more than 3,300 Supercenters, nearly 500 discount stores and 365 Neighborhood Markets.

The city of Lone Star, which has about 1,600 residents, is happy to be among the next cities to get a Wal-Mart Express, according to City Secretary Ruth Nash.She said the city approved plans for an approximately 12,000-square-foot store with groceries, a deli, fuel and possibly a pharmacy — which she said her “little town” does not have.

The company has indicated it expects to start construction this month, Nash said, and be finished by the end of the year or early next year.“We’re excited,” she said. City officials had a meeting to consider the necessary zoning for the proposed store on North Main Street, and all but one community member who spoke was in favor of the plan.“We have a small grocery store in town,” Nash said, and the Wal-Mart Express could compete with it. “But that’s what capitalism is all about. We’re just such a small little town that the new jobs that would be coming to staff the store and the additional sales tax revenue and property tax revenue — we think it will draw enough business into our town that it will more than offset what might happen to the other stores.”

The town has some businesses, but not a lot of retailers.“We’re hoping there will be enough business for everybody,” Nash said.

Tatum plans

In Tatum, Mayor Phil Cory said plans for the store are still in preliminary stages. The city has approved a necessary zoning change for property on Texas 149, but Cory said he does not know anything about construction timing or the mix of products the store will offer.“From a community standpoint, I’ve always believed competition is good at least,” he said. Tatum is served by the B&B Food store and Family Dollar and Dollar General stores.

Still, he understands the store’s opening could affect other local businesses.He hasn’t had any direct feedback on the issue from the community, he said, but he suspects Tatum residents have mixed feelings on the topic of Wal-Mart Express.“It’s interesting to see what they’re doing,” he said of Wal-Mart.“I think smaller communities like ours — our people do have a tendency to drive out of town to do a lot of their business,” he added, with residents seeking the larger variety of businesses found in Longview, Marshall, Carthage and Henderson, for instance. “I don’t know how to project it, but it might mean that some of that business might stay more local.”