A leaked memo shows Wal-Mart plans to open or expand 484 stores in the U.S. this year. That’s about 100 more stores than the company had previously disclosed and totals about 90 million square feet of retail.
Earlier this year CEO Lee Scott asked the company’s executives to speed up the siting and construction of new stores in anticipation of more communities adopting zoning ordinances that restrict big-box development.
“We could be three or four times bigger in the U.S. In our five-year plan, we don’t reach saturation,” Scott told reporters, explaining that the company will continue to put its resources into opening supercenters for now, returning later to blanket areas between supercenters with its 45,000-square-foot Neighborhood Market stores.
