Chatham To Get Second, Much Smaller Wal-Mart
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Less than a year after Wal-Mart won approval of plans to build a 150,000-square-foot supercenter in the Chatham neighborhood, the company also was planning to build a 10,000-square-foot convenience store less than two blocks away.
Wal-Mart spokesman Steven Restivo confirmed Wednesday afternoon that the company will open a Wal-Mart Express store in an existing 10,000-square-foot building just east of a Potbelly sandwich shop at the corner of 83rd Street and Holland Drive.
It would be Wal-Mart's smallest format store yet, about the size of most 7-Eleven stores and would carry similar grocery items as most typical convenience stores.
The store would be located less than two blocks from a planned Supercenter in Chatham.
Last July, the City Council signed off on plans to build a Wal-Mart Supercenter at 83rd Street and Stewart Avenue in the Chatham neighborhood. When completed next year, it would be the city's third Wal-Mart, along with its existing store in the Austin neighborhood, and a store slated to open in the Pullman neighborhood next year.
The Wal-Mart Express planned for Chatham would be the second small Wal-Mart store in Chicago.
That store would be more than twice the size of the Chatham store. The West Loop location would be a a 26,000 square-foot store on the ground floor of Presidential Towers, 555 W. Madison St.
The West Loop store will sell meat, fresh produce and other groceries, and will include a pharmacy, deli and bakery. The store will also sell pet supplies, household supplies and paper goods.
The company has yet to say when either of the smaller Wal-Mart stores would open.
