Google Express attracts attention; Walmart closes 3 stores in China

• Publix sets its eye on North Carolina
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will soon have a new grocery competitor in North Carolina as Florida-based Publix broke ground this week for its first store in the state. Publix chose the city of Ballantyne, near Charlotte for its first retail effort there.

Publix posted $27.5 billion in sales last year and says it has planned two stores in addition to opening a Charlotte office, with a divisional vice president who will oversee the expansion into North Carolina.

The Charlotte Observer reports Publix is the latest new entrant into the somewhat crowded local grocery market as retailers from high-end to low-end have already opened stores in the last few years. Whole Foods and Walmart Neighborhood Market came a few years ago, prompting Target and Family Dollar to renovate their stores to sharply increase their food offerings.

Wal-Mart has 171 retail units across North Carolina employing more than 49,200 workers. There are 131 supercenters, 9 discount stores, 8 express stores, 22 Sam’s Clubs and the one Neighborhood Market in Charlotte.

• Google Shopping Express
Several Wal-Mart competitors – Target, Walgreens, Staples, American Eagle, Office Depot and Toys R Us – have signed up to participate in Google’s Shopping Express trial program.

Google is testing same-day delivery in San Francisco Bay area which allows online shoppers to order from name-brand retailers and have those items delivered the same day, according to the San Francisco Gate.

The express delivery service is free to customers, at least for now during this trial phase. The participating retailers will pay Google a commission for the delivery service.

• Walmart closing three stores in China
Wal-Mart says it will shutter three of its China superstores in April as works to better adjust its sales network in that market.

The Bentonville-based retailer is one of nearly a dozen companies to scale back or pull out of China all-together after lackluster results relating to government controls and rising costs.

Rents are high, rising as much as 10% in the past year, according to foreign reports. Wal-Mart’s International President Doug McMillon has said repeatedly that Wal-Mart is working to gain better locations and layouts that are more suited to a supercenter format.

He has told reporters that Wal-Mart still had much work to do in China and that would mean some stores would be shuttered and others relocated as time and opportunity allowed.

Wal-Mart closed four of its stores in China last year, with three more planned in 2013. In contrast, Home Depot announced in September 2012 it would be exiting China in the next year. Best Buy was one of the American retailers to bid China goodbye, closing all of its nine stores in 2011.

That said, Wal-Mart began converting it’s China business to the Every Day Low Price model in 2012 and has long-term plans to add more than 100 stores in China over the next three years. 

McMillon says the retailer is still trying to perfect their internal operations in China but sees good long-term prospects.