WinCo to Enter Montana?

WinCo Foods may be entering Montana, as the Boise, Idaho-based grocer has filed plans to build a store in Billings, the state’s largest city, the Billings Gazette has reported.

Planned for a spot that once housed a Kmart, the new store will be a “traditional, large” location, at more than 88,000 square feet and an estimated cost of $6.8 million, the news outlet noted. WinCo would own the store, while the land would be leased to the retailer by Modakco LLC, of Rapid City, S.D., which owns the property.

WinCo previously had plans to enter the Treasure State when, in April 2016, it revealed plans to build a store in Bozeman. However, it withdrew its plans several months later due to the city’s design requirements. It then announced its intention to build a store in the capital city of Helena, but put those plans on hold the following March.

At the beginning of this month, WinCo opened its third small-format store under the Waremart banner name, in Keizer, Ore. The banner serves as a “throwback” to the grocer’s original locations, which operated under that name.

Based in Boise, Idaho, WinCo Foods operates 118 stores in nine states.