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Walmart to open Connecticut grocery

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February 21, 2012|By Todd Wallack

Workers walk through a new Wal-Mart store in Chicago. (REUTERS )

Walmart Stores Inc., which has already announced plans to open its first grocery store in the northeast in Somerville, plans to open a second New England grocery market in West Hartford, Conn., by the end of 2012, according to Edens, the South Carolina developer that owns the Connecticut shopping center.

But it is unclear which store will open first.

Walmart originally said the Somerville store would open by July. But the company’s proposal faces opposition from a network of community groups, called Somerville Coalition for a Responsible Walmart, which is critical of the retailer’s labor practices and other policies.

By contrast, the West Hartford Town Council already approved plans to redevelop the Bishops Corner Shopping Plaza before Walmart was publicly identified as one of the tenants on Friday.

Both stores, offering fresh produce and other groceries, would be less than half the size of Walmart’s typical discount superstores, which measure about 185,000 square feet. The Somerville location in Assembly Square is expected to be 34,000 square feet.

The West Hartford store would measure about 50,000 square feet, according to Edens.

Since 1998, Walmart has opened 167 grocery stores around the country that it calls Walmart Neighborhood Markets. The Bentonville, Ark., retailer also operates more than 3,000 supercenters and is testing a new line of smaller 15,000-square-foot stores, called Walmart Express.

The company could not be reached for comment.