Walmart Express Challenges Dollar Stores

The world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, recently unveiled it’s plan to battle the growing threat of dollar stores popping up around the country- a ‘mini’ version of the discount superstore called Walmart Express.

In Gentry, Arkansas last week, the first drugstore-sized Walmart Express store opened, offering a solution to customers on-the-go, 11,000 to 13,000 items, a tenth of what a typical superstore carries.

According to the Wallstreet Journal, the express stores will feature ready-to-go meals and other essentials that the regular store carries, including toilet paper, DVDs, stationary, prepaid phones, etc. There is also a pharmacy located in the express stores.

It’s no secret that Walmart’s business has been chipped away by conveniently located dollar stores which are a god-send in a time of high gas prices.

To combat this, U.S. stores chief Bill Simon reveals that Wal-Mart plans on opening 90 to 100 of the express stores by January 2012 and an additional 200 by fiscal 2013.

The third Walmart Express was scheduled to open today in North Carolina.

Here’s to crushing the hopes of Small Business owners throughout the nation.

via ABCnews