Congratulations, West Loop! Your WalMart Opens Today!

By Chuck Sudo in News on Sep 21, 2011 2:20PM

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.