(Ian Ritter is national online editor for GlobeSt.com/RETAIL.)

NATICK, MA-BJ's Wholesale Club will add 12 to 15 stores this year and an additional 15 to 18 in 2007, an increase from the nine units the company opened last year. Store openings for the 163-store chain in 2008 should follow a similar pattern, executives said during their quarterly conference call.

"We are planning for three more years of growth in our current markets," said Michael Wedge, the company's president and chief executive officer. New store openings this year are planned for Connecticut, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

During the company's fourth quarter, which ended Jan. 28, year-over-year same-store sales inched up 1.7%, on total sales of $2.1 billion, which increased by 5%. For all of 2005, same-store sales rose 1.3%; executives are planning for 1% comps during the current quarter and a rise between 3% and 5% for the rest of the year. February same-store sales have come in at a 1.6% increase.