CSNews’ Chief Editor Talks Small-Box Retailing With NPR
NATIONAL REPORT -- Walmart’s on-again, off-again flirtation with small-box retailing was the subject of a news report last night on National Public Radio’s (NPR) Marketplace program. Don Longo, editor-in-chief of Convenience Store News and a long-time follower of Walmart, was interviewed by NPR’s Shannon Mullen about Walmart’s threat to small-box retailers.
Walmart, which this past fall announced it was accelerating plans to expand its fleet of smaller-sized stores, intends to open a new “Walmart on Campus” location at the Georgia Institute of Technology in downtown Atlanta. According to Georgia Tech’s student newspaper, the new store will fill a 2,500-square-foot location that formerly housed a ribs restaurant. It will sell a variety of convenience store-type products, electronics and grocery items, and include a pharmacy.
This will be the second “Walmart on Campus” location. The first opened at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, not far from the retailer’s headquarters in Bentonville, Ark.
CSNews Online reported in October that Walmart plans to have 500 Neighborhood Markets -- small grocery stores ranging in size from 25,000 to 55,000 square feet -- and 12 Walmart Express stores -- smaller units of about 10,000 square feet. As of July, Walmart operated 217 Neighborhood Markets and 10 Walmart Express stores.