Wal-Mart Stores Inc. says it’s accelerating its expansion of small stores as it looks to compete with a variety of rivals, from dollar stores to drug chains.
The company told investors at its analysts’ meeting Wednesday that it plans to have a total of 500 Neighborhood Market stores and a total of 12 Express stores by fiscal 2016.
About 100 protesters gathered Wednesday morning in Bentonville outside the company's headquarters, and planned to move to outside Embassy Suites in Rogers.
Protests against Wal-Mart have grown across the country this week, with the support of union-backed Making Change at Walmart. The campaign's goals include increasing wages and stopping cuts to workers' hours, Dan Schlademan, director of the campaign, told the New York Times.
Bill Simon, president of Wal-Mart’s U.S. division says that Neighborhood Market store have generated a 5 percent increase in revenue at stores opened at least a year for the first half of this year. That’s more than double the growth rate of the Wal-Mart’s average store.
As of the end of July, Wal-Mart had 10 “Express” stores and had ramped up its “Neighborhood Market” concept to 217 locations.