Walmart

==== Walmart Discount Store ====
<!-- Courtesy note per [[MOS:LINK2SECT]]: redirect [[Walmart discount store]] and others link here. -->

[[File:Wal-Mart Albemarle Rd Charlotte, NC (7580001150).jpg|thumb|The exterior of a Walmart Discount Store in [[Charlotte, North Carolina]] (Store #1821)|alt=The exterior of a Walmart Discount Store in Charlotte, North Carolina]]
'''Walmart Discount Stores''', also branded as simply "Walmart", are discount department stores with sizes varying from {{convert|30000|to|221000|sqft|abbr=off|sp=us}}, with the average store covering {{convert|105000|sqft|abbr=off|sp=us}}.<ref name="2022 10-K"/> They carry [[general merchandise]] and limited [[grocery|groceries]]. Some newer and remodeled discount stores have an expanded grocery department, similar to Target's PFresh department. Many of these stores also feature a garden center, pharmacy, Tire & Lube Express, optical center, one-hour photo processing lab, portrait studio, a bank branch, a cell phone store, and a fast food outlet. Some also have gasoline stations.<ref name="CSNews_WMGas">{{cite news |url = https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-29/Walmart-to-offer-customers-discount-gas-as-prices-rise.html |title = Walmart to Offer Customers Discount Gas As Prices Rise |publisher = [[Bloomberg L.P.]] |date = August 29, 2012 |access-date = December 7, 2012 |author = Welch, David |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120907230614/http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-29/wal-mart-to-offer-customers-discount-gas-as-prices-rise.html |url-status=live |archive-date = September 7, 2012 }}</ref> Discount Stores were Walmart's original concept, though they have since been surpassed by Supercenters.<ref name="Volpe"/>

In 1990, Walmart opened its first Bud's Discount City location in Bentonville. Bud's operated as a closeout store, much like [[Big Lots]]. Many locations were opened to fulfill leases in shopping centers as Walmart stores left and moved into newly built Supercenters. All of the Bud's Discount City stores had closed or converted into Walmart Discount Stores by 1997.<ref name="DSN Retailing Today 97">{{cite news |title = Wal-Mart shuttering 7-year old Bud's chain |url = http://www.nexis.com/docview/getDocForCuiReq?lni=5J0R-BSJ1-DYBW-21K0&csi=8399&oc=00240&perma=true |newspaper = DSN Retailing Today |date = August 4, 1997 |access-date = February 28, 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160307161925/http://www.nexis.com/docview/getDocForCuiReq?lni=5J0R-BSJ1-DYBW-21K0&csi=8399&oc=00240&perma=true |archive-date = March 7, 2016}}</ref>

At its peak in 1996, there were 1,995 Walmart Discount Stores;<ref>{{Cite web|title=Wal-mart Stores, Inc. Form 10-k Annual Report for the Year Ended January 31, 1996 |website=U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission |url=https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/104169/0000104169-96-000002.txt|access-date=June 26, 2019|archive-date=November 12, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112025842/https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/104169/0000104169-96-000002.txt|url-status=live}}</ref> as of October 31, 2022, that number was dropped to 365.<ref name="Unit Counts & Square Footage"/><ref name="Unit Counts by Country"/>