From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Hypermart USA
Hypermart USA
Hypermart USA 1990, and eventually began either converting them to Su-
percenter operations or closing them.
Former Test project subsidiary
type
Industry Retail
Fate Project discontinued
Buildings closed, sold, or converted to Wal-Mart
Founded 1987
Defunct 1990
Products Food, clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture,
jewelry, beauty products, electronics and
housewares.
A Hypermart USA truck sits in a Wal-Mart parking lot in 2005,
Parent Wal-Mart long after the concept was discontinued.
Website None
The Hypermart USA concept officially discontinued
Hypermart USA was a demonstrator project operated by in 1990, when Wal-Mart announced it was converting
Wal-Mart in the 1980s, which attempted to combine gro- Kansas City’s Hypermart USA in Benjamin Plaza near
ceries and general merchandise under one roof at a sub- Bannister Mall into a Wal-Mart Supercenter. At the time,
stantial discount. The hypermart concept was modeled Wal-Mart said it would cost almost $5 million to renovate
after French retailer Carrefour which had been operating the 270,000 sq ft (25,000 m2). store. This store closed mid-
big box stores in France and Brazil. The Texas stores were January 2007 with the opening of a new Wal-Mart Su-
operated in partnerships with Cullum Companies, former percenter on the site of the former Blue Ridge Mall now
owner of Tom Thumb supermarkets. Blue Ridge Crossing as the first Wal-Mart "high-efficien-
All stores used a floorplan that exceeded 220,000 sq. cy" store which opened January 19, 2007. An inefficient
ft. (20,000 m²). They featured a mini-mall, food court, ar- floorplan and the facility’s large size were cited as some
cade, bank, and other kiosk operations. of the reasons for the relocation.The original Hypermart
in Garland, Texas closed in May 2008, and was replaced
by Wal-Mart’s first "Hispanic Community" store a few
History blocks away.[1]
The prototype did not go as well as planned. Wal-Mart
was unaccustomed to operating such massive stores, and Locations
an economic recession had brought on a decline in retail
sales. Although the stores were profitable, sales projec- • Garland, Texas (December 28, 1987)
tions were too optimistic and the company did not an- • Poplar Bluff, Missouri (January 1988)
ticipate the massive heating and cooling costs, the resis- • Topeka, Kansas (January 1988)
tance of customers towards parking and congestion is- • Arlington, Texas (August 1988)
sues, and the formidable shopping experience in stores • Kansas City, Missouri (February 1990)
"too big to find anything."[citation needed]
The first Wal-Mart Supercenter, which used a floor- References
plan in the 125,000 sq ft (11,600 m2) range, was opened in
[1] "South KC Wal-Mart Supercenter will close". Kansas
1988 in Washington, Missouri. As the Supercenter proved
City Business Journal. August 28, 2006.
to be a much more profitable experiment, Wal-Mart re-
http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/
named the stores "Wal-Mart’s Hypermart USA" in April
2006/08/28/daily4.html. Retrieved 2006-11-25.
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Hypermart USA
Further reading • Wal-Mart hatches a ’Super’ winner - Wal-Mart
SuperCenters
• Wal-Mart launches Hypermart USA • Hypermart USA units get SuperCenter-type facelift
• Wal-Mart gambles that Hypermart will pay off in • Walmart Replaces former Garland Hypermart
small town, USA location with the companies first Hispanic
• Wal-Mart tests similar hypermarkets - Hypermart Community Store
USA, Wal-Mart SuperCenter
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hypermart_USA&oldid=454321548"
Categories:
• Defunct retail companies of the United States
• Walmart
• Companies disestablished in 1991
• Retail companies established in 1987
• Companies based in Texas
This page was last modified on 7 October 2011 at 01:23. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-
ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of use for details. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of
the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.Contact us
Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers
2