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Retail Top 100 2012, No. 32: Smaller store formats

December 9, 2012

As consumers continue to do more shopping online, big-box retailers are attempting to stay profitable and reduce under-utilized space by moving to smaller store formats. Safeway and Walmart are among the latest to follow the trail blazed by Tesco’s Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market. The advantages of smaller formats include greater flexibility, proximity to local markets, a quicker shopping experience, new store development options, solutions for recycling older units, and lower break-even points. According to Marketwise, 62 percent of Walmart’s newest stores are small-format Walmart Express, most of them in underserved rural and urban areas. The chain’s small-format Walmart Express stores typically carry between 11,000 to 13,000 items, compared with the more than 100,000 items found in a Supercenter. “Small stores are going to be a very good growth opportunity for us,” says William S. Simon, president and chief executive of Walmart’s domestic business, “because they allow us to get access in places we are not in today.”

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