Harps to open 4 ex-Wal-Mart stores, including 2 in Arkansas

Harps Food Stores is reopening four of the shuttered stores it acquired from Wal-Mart, including this one in Gravette.
Harps Food Stores is reopening four of the shuttered stores it acquired from Wal-Mart, including this one in Gravette.

GRAVETTE -- Harps Food Stores Inc. will open four of the nine stores it acquired from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in Arkansas and Missouri, beginning in August.

The Springdale grocery chain revealed plans for the former Wal-Mart Express stores, which were closed by the Bentonville-based retailer in January. Harps is preparing Arkansas stores in Gravette and Cedarville, while Missouri locations will open in Anderson and Seligman.

The stores represent fewer than half of the properties purchased as part of Harps' agreement with Wal-Mart. Stores in Gentry, Prairie Grove and Noel, Mo. -- towns where Harps already operates groceries -- will be resold by the company. Harps has not yet determined what it will do with stores in Charleston and Mansfield.

Financial terms of the acquisitions were not available, but J. Max Van Hoose, Harps' vice president of store planning, said purchasing nine stores without intentions to open each was not a "huge risk."

The company plans to use some of the equipment acquired from the closed stores in some of its other locations. Van Hoose said the offer to buy nine stores made Harps' deal more attractive to Wal-Mart.

"We felt comfortable that our proposal would be looked at more favorably if it wasn't just one or two [stores]," Van Hoose said. "They're trying to sell a lot of facilities. So we didn't want to lose the opportunity in those markets that we wanted to be in, or didn't have grocery stores, quite frankly."

The locations were available after Wal-Mart announced that it was closing 269 stores worldwide, including 154 in the U.S., as part of its efforts to streamline and reorganize operations. Most of the U.S. closures were of smaller-format stores known as Wal-Mart Express. Those stores averaged 12,000 square feet and were part of a pilot program that began in 2011.

The Gravette, Cedarville, Gentry and Prairie Grove locations were among 11 Wal-Mart Express stores closed in Arkansas. Wal-Mart also shut down stores in Coal Hill, Maumelle, Damascus, Mulberry and Decatur. Those stores were not part of the deal.

The Gravette location will be the first new Harps acquisition to open on Aug. 3, giving the Northwest Arkansas town a grocery store for the first time since Wal-Mart's decision to leave in January. A CV's Family Foods store also is under construction and will open in Gravette later this year.

"I usually go to Bentonville or Centerton," Gravette resident Carla Wells said Thursday. "I work and live here so it makes it really hard. We also have a lot of elderly people that don't drive out of Gravette. They're depending on other people to get their groceries. So we're excited."

In Missouri, the Seligman location is to open Aug. 10, while the Harps store in Anderson will open Aug. 24.

Harps plans to open its Cedarville store Sept. 7.

The four stores are smaller than most that Harps operates, but Van Hoose said the company does have experience with the format. The stores will have fuel stations, but no pharmacies. A previously announced acquisition in Gentry -- which is undergoing a $3 million renovation and is scheduled to open Sept. 21 -- is larger and the conventional grocery store will include a bakery, deli, produce and meat departments.

The five new stores, which include the one in Gentry, will employ about 170, and filling the positions will begin immediately.

Harps will hold job fairs in each town, beginning Saturday in Gravette.

Van Hoose said the three stores that won't reopen as Harps properties will be put up for sale soon. There is no timeline for the company's decision on plans for the Mansfield and Charleston stores. Van Hoose said Harps plans to take its time.

"If you live in these communities it feels like it is taking awhile, but it's really happened very quickly and this process has been pretty fluid," Van Hoose said.

"We mentioned we're going to open five new stores by the end of September. We have other projects in the pipeline beyond that. So part of the process is just managing the stuff we already have in the pipeline. Through that process, we'll take a little more time to just figure out if there's an opportunity for us there or not."

Business on 06/24/2016

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