Жоқ болған «Hypermart USA» дүкендерінің тарихы

Defunct American store

Hypermart USA (also labeled as Walmart's USA following 1990) was a demonstrator project operated by Walmart in the 1980s and 1990s, which attempted to combine groceries and general merchandise under one roof at a substantial discount. The hypermart concept was modeled after earlier efforts from other retailers, notably French retailers such as Auchan and Carrefour, and the Midwestern big retailer Meijer. At its peak, Hypermart USA had four locations with two located in Texas, one in Kansas, and one in Missouri. All stores used a floorplan that exceeded (which was about 42,000 square feet larger then an average Walmart Supercenter in 2022 and about 40,000 less square feet than the current largest Walmart Supercenter in Albany, New York). They featured a mini mall, food court, arcade, bank, and other kiosk operations. The ones in Kansas City and Topeka featured McDonald's, Subway, and Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen in their food courts.

The prototype did not go as well as planned. Walmart was unaccustomed to operating such massive stores, and an economic recession in the early 1990s had brought on a decline in retail sales. Although the stores were profitable, sales projections were too optimistic and the company did not anticipate the great heating and cooling costs, the resistance of customers towards parking and congestion issues. The first Walmart Supercenter, which used a floorplan in the range, was opened in 1988 in Washington, Missouri. As the Supercenter proved to be a much more profitable experiment, Walmart renamed the stores "Wal Mart's Hypermart USA" in April 1990, and eventually began either converting them to Supercenter operations or closing them. As of 2023, two of the former Hypermart USA locations still operate as Walmarts while the other two have been demolished. The Hypermart USA concept was officially discontinued in 2000, when Walmart announced it was converting the Kansas City Hypermart USA into a Walmart Supercenter. The former Kansas City store, then a Supercenter, ultimately closed in January 2007. The original Hypermart in Garland, Texas closed in May 2008. The Topeka, Kansas, hypermarket, located on Southwest Wanamaker Road, is still open, although its exterior has been remodeled as well as the Arlington, Texas, location on South Cooper Street.