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WAL-MART CANADA GROWS

See Wal-Mart Canada grow. In the seven years since Wal-Mart Canada was created with the purchase of 122 Woolco locations, it has expanded its share of the department store market (including both majors and discounters) yearly, from 14.2 percent in 1994 to 37 percent and nearly $7 billion (Canadian) in sales by 2000. (See chart). Surveys by Kubas Consultants, Toronto, show that in 2001, 88 percent of Canadian retail customers reported that they shop at Wal-Mart, compared with 65 percent in 1995.

The impact of the Bentonville, Ark., discounter is palpable in some communities. Winnipeg, Manitoba, now has a total of six Wal-Marts, all of them thriving in this catchment area of about 725,000 inhabitants, which has traditionally provided a strong consumer market for value retail. Wal-Mart has also been a catalyst for other retail development, said Sandy Shindleman, president of Shindico Realty, a Winnipeg commercial real estate services company. Grocery outlets have popped up next to some Wal-Mart stores (Wal-Mart has yet to import its grocery concept).

But nationally, the full potential impact of Wal-Mart on the Canadian retail landscape has really only become apparent in the past year. While Sears and The Bay struggled with declining profits in 2001, Wal-Mart announced in September that it would double its planned rate of expansion in Canada from 10 stores to 20 per year. The company finished 2001 with 194 stores, and sees the potential for plenty more, according to Andrew Pelletier, Wal-Mart’s director of corporate affairs in Canada. Pelletier will not speculate about the eventual total number of Canadian Wal-Mart stores, but remarked, “When you think of Shoppers Drug Mart with 800 stores, Canadian Tire with 400-plus and Zellers with over 300, we think there is ultimately a lot of room for us to grow in Canada.”

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