Harps Food Stores Inc. of Springdale said Wednesday that it is acquiring six former Walmart Express stores in Arkansas.
The acquisitions are scheduled to close later this month and include properties in Gravette, Gentry, Prairie Grove, Cedarville, Mansfield and Charleston. Harps is also buying former Express stores in Anderson, Seligman and Noel, Missouri.
The private grocery store chain did not disclose the purchase price, nor did it say how it will use the properties. In a statement, the company said “specific information on store re-openings will not be finalized until after the acquisition is complete.”
Two of of the Express properties are in cities where Harps already has a store or is building one.
In Gentry, Harps has been working to convert a former Marvin’s Food Store into a 24,000-SF store. That project, at the intersection of Highway 59 and Highway 12, is set to open in late September.
Harps already operates a store in Prairie Grove.
J. Max Van Hoose, Harps vice president of store planning, confirmed that the Express properties in Gentry and Prairie Grove will not become Harps stores.
Harps’ announcement comes about five months after Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of Bentonville announced it would close 154 stores in the United States, including 102 experimental, small-footprint Express stores.
The Express stores range from 12,000-14,000 SF. That’s smaller than most Harps grocery stores, which are about 32,000-SF.
The closings left some cities, including Gentry, without grocery stores. In February, Mayor Kevin Johnson told Arkansas Business that the city was working to fill the void; the closest grocery is a Walmart Supercenter six miles away in Siloam Springs.
“The old Marivin’s building will be an improvement based on the fact that it’s a better, easier to acess location,” Johnston said about. “So that in and of itself is a beneifit; the floor plan is larger.”
He said that when Walmart decided to leave the town, he tried to recruit a number of grocers to the area but had an “overwhelming request” to see if Harps would come to the area.
“(Harps) had an original interest in Gentry years back, but Gentry wasn’t big enough for two grocery stores,” Johnston said. “I think we’re a pretty attractive city to them. It’s going to be a great relationship.”
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