Wal-Mart: Always Competitive, Always Thinking

Many communities are legislating restrictions of the development of big box stores. Some communities did this on size, usually at 100,000 square feet. So Walmart responded with store formats of about 97,000 square feet. Other communities combined size restrictions with more specific regulation on the sales of food, by putting in limits on the number of overall products carried by monitoring stockkeeping units (skus).

Today's Washington Post reports that Walmart plans to get around Calvert County Maryland restrictions by building two stores next to each other -- one 74,998 square feet store, next to a 22,689 square foot garden store. Each store will have its own entrance, utilities, bathrooms and cash registers--and a combined area 30% larger than the 75,000 square foot limit for a single store.

Check out "Adjacent Wal-Marts May Dodge Size Curbs: Calvert Had Stopped Supercenter Plans."

"The tactic is the latest example of Wal-Mart's increasingly creative responses to the scores of jurisdictions, including Prince William and Montgomery counties, that have passed regulations limiting the size and location of big-box stores."

"'It almost points out the futility of municipalities developing ordinances and laws that restrict the size of stores,'" said Kenneth E. Stone, professor emeritus of economics at Iowa State University, who has studied the company for 20 years. 'There's always a way around them, and an outfit as big and smart as Wal-Mart will think of a way.'"

"Mia Masten, community affairs manager for Wal-Mart's eastern region, said she believed the Dunkirk site would be the first time the Bentonville, Ark., company will build two side-by-side stores in response to size restrictions. It is a strategy that Wal-Mart is likely to consider in other areas, she said."