Fergus Falls, MN. Wal-Mart Still Plans to Build

Wal-Mart plans still on track [Daily Journal (Minn.)]

Low sales reported out of corporate Wal-Mart and competition from a neighboring supercenter won’t affect expansion plans for the Fergus Falls location. Those plans, however, are still static at the moment.

Earlier in the week, CNNMoney.com reported U.S. retailers experienced their slowest monthly sales growth in five years. Topping the list was Wal-Mart Stores Inc. That’s news to Tim Bosworth, Fergus Falls Wal-Mart manager. However, the local store did take a bit of a hit when a Wal-Mart Supercenter opened up 25 miles down the road in Wahpeton last August.

“It was a good year in light of the fact that the last five months of 2007, the Wahpeton store took 10 percent of our sales,” Bosworth said.

Sales were up 7 percent in July in the Fergus Falls locale — then the Wahpeton store opened. Things are getting back to normal, however.

“That’s pretty typical of what happens” when a new store opens, Bosworth said. “Then people get back to their established shopping patterns.”

The expansion schedule for the Fergus Falls Wal-Mart remains the same, to Bosworth’s knowledge. It had been reset for March 2008, but a moratorium on building projects at the corporate level caused a log-jam of projects already on the roster. Projects will be reassigned soon, he said.

One year ago, the announcement was made that the existing 96,000 square-foot Fergus Falls building was to become a 174,000 square-foot supercenter, complete with full grocery store and deli.

The expansion was delayed last summer, resulting from the June announcement by the corporate office that it was slowing expansions and putting more money into its bottom line.

Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Monday, February 11, 2008

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