Walmart Opens First Express Store in Chicago

CHICAGO -- Walmart Stores Inc. opened the doors of its first Walmart Express store in Chicago today, according to a Chicago Tribune report. The store is located at the edge of the Catham Market shopping center on the city's South Side.

The location is the first of five Walmart Express stores planned for Chicago, a test market for the smaller store format, which occupies 10,000 to 15,000 square feet, one-tenth the size of a Walmart Supercenter. Walmart Express stores carry fresh groceries, pharmacy and health and beauty items.

Richfield, N.C., and Walmart's home state of Arkansas, are also test markets for the new format. The company plans to build five Express stores in each. The other Chicago Express stores will be located at Broadway and Addison streets in Wrigleyville, planned to open later in 2011; at South Western Avenue and West 71st Street, planned to open in early 2012; at Chicago Avenue and Franklin Street, planned to open in spring 2012; and at a to-be-determined location, according to the report.

Walmart also recently broke ground on a Supercenter in the Chatham neighborhood, located at 83rd Street and Stewart Avenue. The company plans to build two Walmart Supercenters and three Walmart Markets in Chicago as part of its "Chicago Community Investment Partnership," a five-year plan announced in June 2010 to open several dozen stores, create approximately 10,000 jobs and 2,000 unionized construction jobs, generate more than $500 million in sales and property taxes, and develop charitable partnerships worth $20 million.