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GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVE: Major Wal-Mart Expansion Brings War of Words

DALLAS-A Houston market watcher is under fire by Wal-Mart for releasing details about another 400 stores and eight distribution centers, totaling upward of another 47 million sf. It's Wal-Mart's information to disclose and the count is off, chides an exec.

By Connie Gore | Updated on August 30, 2001

DALLAS-Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is miffed that a Houston market watcher has tread on its territory by releasing information about a multi-year massive building program. Industrial Information Resources Inc. calculates that the big-box retailer is rolling out another 400 stores and eight distribution centers in the US.

The building program started earlier this year, continues through 2002 and wraps up in summer 2003. The eight logistics sites, totaling 8.1 million sf, alone will cost Sam Walton’s Bentonville, AR-based team a cool $253 million, says Jay Brunson, the research firm’s food and beverage group manager. Factor in the known stores of all sizes, 147 of which have delivered and some 210 that are yet to be, and Brunson comes up with another 40 million sf–all in retail space coming to market. “I’ve never had this many projects happening at Wal-Mart at one time,” Brunson, who’s monitored the retail giant since 1997, tells GlobeSt.com. And, he believes there are another 43 stores in the pipeline to take the count to 400.

Wal-Mart has never had this many projects on and off the boards simultaneously either, but it isn’t Brunson’s information to disclose, Tom Williams, Wal-Mart’s spokesman, stresses to GlobeSt.com. It’s simply not Wal-Mart’s policy to release the highly classified project information. “When we’re ready to disclose it, we will disclose it,” Williams says, attacking the validity of Brunson’s data.

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