Good News: Wal-Mart Slowing Down

Lee Scott and Eduardo Castro-Wright have spent the past two days in New York City, detailing Wal-Mart’s business plan to financial analysts. There’s a lot to run down here, but the big (and good) news: less new Wal-Marts. The company is continuing to cut down on capital expenditures and build less stores, focusing instead on remodeling and driving up sales at its current stores.

AP:

As a result, capital expenditures will come in at $5.8 billion to $6.4 billion for fiscal 2009 and $6.3 billion to $6.8 billion in fiscal 2010. That’s down from the $9.1 billion the company had in capital expenditures in its last fiscal year.

The Wall Street Journal tells us what that means in terms of store numbers.

Mr. Castro-Wright also said the discount retailer plans to open 142 to 157 new U.S. stores in the fiscal year ending January 2010, down from an earlier projection of 165.

150 stores is still a heck of a lot, but any decrease is a good thing. Remember that growth in 2008 had dropped from 2007, and that only several years ago Wal-Mart was opening 300+ new stores a year.

Some other tidbits from the analyst meeting below the jump-

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