Walmart Opening More Convenience Stores

Walmart Inc. has revealed plans to open several small-format convenience stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, with a 2,000-square-foot location in Plano opening this week and three more stores slated for Arlington, Lake Worth and Lewisville later in the year, according to a published report.

Open from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m., the c-stores will be situated in the parking lots of Walmart Supercenters that didn’t already have gas stations, with each location offering eight fuel pumps. No free-standing locations are currently planned, company spokeswoman Anne Hatfield told The Dallas Morning News. 

The Plano location is celebrating its opening with free samples of various foods through Saturday, Hatfield said.

Last year, Walmart opened a convenience store in Crowley, Texas, south of Fort Worth, while others debuted in Rogers Ark., Huntsville, Ala., and Thornton, Colo., and yet another is scheduled for Avon, Ohio, but the format is still being tested as part of the mega-retailer’s quest to offer shoppers a range of choices.

This isn’t the Bentonville, Ark.-based company’s first foray into the c-store channel: Its Walmart Express concept, averaging around 12,000 square feet, rolled out in 2011 but ended in 2016.

The Dallas Morning News further reported that El Dorado, Ark.-based Murphy USA runs about 1,000 fuel stations for Walmart, some featuring small convenience stores, but that Walmart informed Murphy two years ago that it would start building and operating its own fuel stations.