Walmart is opening two stores in the Milwaukee area this week, several other stores are under construction and plans are advancing for even more.
A 42,000-square-foot Walmart Neighborhood Market store opens today at N88 W15559 Main St. in Menomonee Falls. The space, located in the Pilgrim Village shopping center, was previously occupied by a Piggly Wiggly store but has been vacant for several years.
The Walmart Neighborhood Market stores are smaller than typical Walmart stores and focus on grocery and pharmacy merchandise. The Menomonee Falls store will have 90 employees.
On Friday, Walmart will open a new 150,000-square-foot store at 10600 W. Layton Ave. in Greenfield. The store will replace the older, 110,000-square-foot adjacent Walmart store at 4500 S. 108th St. The new store will have about 300 employees.
The new Greenfield store was built on a site formerly occupied by a driving range. The old store will be used by Ridge Community Church, which will occupy most of the space and lease out the rest of it.
Walmart also recently received approval to open a Neighborhood Market store in the vacant former Walmart store at W226 S1500 Highway 164 in the Town of Waukesha. The Walmart store there closed when a new Walmart store was built at 2000 S. West Ave. in the city of Waukesha.
Plans for a new Walmart Neighborhood Market were also approved recently at a former Sentry store site in Mt. Pleasant.
Walmart is also proposing a new, 185,000-square-foot store southeast of Green Bay Road and Four Mile Road in Caledonia. The company held a public meeting on the project last week and several neighbors expressed strong opposition to the plans. Walmart previously submitted plans for a 115,000-square-foot store at the northwest corner of Four Mile Road and Highway 31 in Caledonia, but dropped those plans after residents opposed it.
It appears clear that Walmart wants to build a store in Caledonia to fill a gap between its stores in Sturtevant and Franklin.
“We have a lot of customers in the Caledonia area and we are looking to serve our customers, getting a store closer to them so they don’t have to drive as far to shop at our stores,” said Walmart spokeswoman Lisa Nelson.
Meanwhile, construction continues for new Walmart stores in South Milwaukee, Greendale and West Milwaukee.
Earlier this year, a 180,000-square-foot Walmart store open at Timmerman Plaza in Milwaukee and Walmart Neighborhood Market stores opened on the west side of Milwaukee and in Wauwatosa.
