Congratulations, West Loop! Your WalMart Opens Today!

Code Poet

Well that was fast. WalMart's aggressive plan to open nearly two dozen stores across the city took another step forward as the retail giant opens its first Loop location in Presidential Towers today.

The store, whose construction was announced in February, is WalMart's first grocery-centric "neighborhood market" in Illinois. Both the proposed WalMarts in Lakeview and River North are also slated to be neighborhood Markets.

According to Crain's Chicago Business, the Presidential Towers location is about "filled with groceries, like $1.28 containers of Fage Greek yogurt, $3.48 gallons of milk and more than 20 varieties of pasta sauce. The remainder is convenience items like 12-packs of Charmin toilet paper for $14.87, a large array of shampoos and other beauty items, plus pet products, office supplies and paper goods." If WalMart is going to expand like roach eggs across the city, these smaller stores like the Neighborhood Markets and the WalMart Express that opened in Chatham in July are the way they'll go about doing so.

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By Chuck Sudo in News on September 21, 2011 9:20 AM

Comments [rss]

David

I passed by the store yesterday on my way home and it looked pretty nice. It was fairly busy and I didn't have a reason to stop by, but I'll probably check it out this weekend. It's too bad they don't have any parking, though. I won't be using them for any of my heavy-duty grocery shopping.

Navin_Johnson

Wasn't there already a market in P.T.?

It has been years (like probably 12) since I had a friend who lived there, but I thought there was a market there.

furytrader

The Presidential Market lost its lease when PT began renovating its lobby area about 18 months ago.

I visited the new Wal-Mart market this morning on the way to work and it's essentially a medium-sized grocery store - there are no car batteries, shotguns or barbecue grills for sale there. The produce and meats sections aren't as big as a Jewel or Dominick's, but they are a lot better than what you find at the Target on Roosevelt.