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Wal-Mart bulking up
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October 5, 1999: 2:42 p.m. ET
World's largest retailer adding 34 million square feet of retail space
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's No. 1 retailer, is packing on about 34 million square feet of additional retail space both inside and outside the United States in its coming fiscal year.
The Bentonville, Ark.-based company said Tuesday it plans to open about 40 new discount stores and 160 to 165 new Supercenters in the fiscal year beginning Feb. 1, 2000. About 100 of the Supercenters will be relocations or expansions of existing discount stores, while the remainder will be new locations.
Separately, Wal-Mart reported comparable store sales -- sales at stores open a year or more -- rose 7.2 percent in the five weeks ended Oct. 1. That compared with a 9 percent increase in the same period a year earlier. Net sales reached $15.7 billion, up 26.4 percent from the prior year.
Shares of Wal-Mart (WMT) rose 2-1/16 to 52-3/8 in Tuesday afternoon trading.
Wal-Mart will also expands its test of the Neighborhood Market, a 40,000 square-foot grocery and drug combination, by adding five to 10 new units in the next fiscal year. The Sam's Club membership-only warehouse stores will open 20 to 25 domestic clubs and about half will be relocations.
As of Sept. 30, Wal-Mart had about 3,800 stores through the world.
Outside the United States, Wal-Mart International plans to open 90 to 100 units in existing markets. The new units include several Cifra formats, such as restaurants, department stores and supermarkets in Mexico. In addition, the company will continue to remodeling its acquired hypermarkets in Germany.
The company also unveiled the largest distribution center expansion in its history, including four new regional general merchandise centers, four new food distribution centers and two fresh food distribution centers to be completed in the next fiscal year. Combined, these 10 locations will add more than 9 million square feet of distribution space.
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Wal - Mart 1Q net up 39% - May 11, 1999
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Wal - Mart
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