Dollar General of Goodlettsville, Tennessee, announced this week its acquisition of 41 former Walmart Express stores in 11 states, including one in Coal Hill and one in Mulberry.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
The store at 1531 E. Hwy. 64 in Coal Hill will be the first Dollar General for that city, which an official confirmed was left without a grocery store when its Walmart Express closed.
Mulberry has a Dollar General that will relocate to the larger space at 3500 Mulberry Hwy. 64 West.
The 39 out-of-state stores to be opened in former Walmart Express sites are also relocating from existing locations. The company said all 41 will open by October and it plans to operate fueling stations at 37 of them.
Dollar General spokeswoman Crystal Ghassemi said the Coal Hill and Mulberry locations are about 12,000 SF, compared to the company’s traditional store size of about 9,100 SF.
She added that Dollar General would operate fueling stations in Mulberry and Coal Hill and both stores will offer fresh meat and produce.
Ghassemi also said the company had not determined yet how many new jobs the move-in and relocation would bring to both cities.
She noted that traditional stores employs between six and 10 people, depending on their individual needs. Open positions will be posted here closer to the grand openings, Ghassemi said.
Mulberry Mayor Gary Baxter said the city was left without a full-service grocery store when its Walmart Express shut down.
The existing Dollar General has been very successful there, he said, and the expansion to a larger location is exciting even though it likely won’t offer as many items as the Walmart Express did.
Baxter also said the city is pleased that an empty building will once again be occupied and Mulberry is hoping to attract another retail business to the existing Dollar General building once the company has relocated its store. But Dollar General has not shared its plans for the existing site with him, the mayor said.
“Our main focus is being able to provide our customers value and convenience,” Ghassemi said about expanding in Mulberry and opening a store in Coal Hill. “And with the expanded square footage of this, we are able to do that in a little bit better capacity. And we’re here to serve our community, and being able to provide additional offerings…It’s just really keeping with our business model, and we’re excited about it, certainly.”
Wal-Mart Inc. closed 10 Walmart Express stores in Arkansas at the end of January, part of a larger nationwide closing of 154 stores in the U.S.
In June, Harps Food Stores Inc. of Springdale bought six of those stores in Arkansas and another three in Missouri. The company later announced that it would only be converting two of the properties in Arkansas to Harps stores and would re-sell two of the others. Harps’ plans for the buildings in Charleston and Mansfield have not been announced.