Charlotte, North Carolina leads the state in empty Wal-Mart stores, and more are on the way. Accordng to the Business Journal of Charlotte, the Crosland Group has announced that it has reached agreement with Wal-Mart to put a 200,000 s.f. supercenter in the Whitehall Commons shopping center. It took the developer 2 years to get Wal-Mart to sign on. In return, taxpayers in Charlotte are likely to see the current Wal-Mart on Arrowood Road shut down. This will bring to 3 the total number of empty Wal-Mart stores in Charlotte. In total, North Carolina already has 16 empty stores taking up more than 1.4 million square feet of dead space. To make matters worse, the existing anchor store in the Whitehall Commons is a Bi-Lo grocery store, which has been there for 5 years. “I don’t see why Bi-Lo won’t be successful even when we open,” a Wal-Mart official told the Business Journal. “They are a very successful grocery chain.” Wal-Mart has become very successful also, especially at shutting down its “smaller” stores to make way for redundant supercenters. North Carolina is not the capital of Wal-Mart boneyards. Texas holds that distinction, with more than 50 empty Wal-Marts.
As you see announcements of Wal-Mart supercenters opening up, in many cases look to see a Wal-Mart discount store nearby shutting down. With as many as 400 stores available, and 25 million square feet of space to lease or buy, Wal-Mart holds more empty real estate than most retailers ever hope to fill. So many vacant stores dot the landscape, that the media has started to call this phenomenon “the empty box syndrome.” When a store empties in your area, contact [email protected]
