I posted a few months ago about Walmart’s smaller store footprint in the U.K. Today’s Financial Times reports on its front page that Walmart is lining up real estate across the US to roll out smaller format stores in its home country.  The article cites chatter amongst real-estate brokers as the source of this information and the world’s largest retailer has yet to announce detailed plans, but suffice it to say that anything Walmart does has the potential to shake things up.

“They’ve been looking at sites between 20,000 and 50,000 sq ft over the summer,” said one broker in northern California.

Garrick Brown, a vice-president of research at Colliers International, said the retailer was looking at taking over existing buildings, and that “chatter” from brokers suggested the retailer was looking for scores of sites across the US. “It is going to be huge,” he said.

Walmart lines up sites across US to roll out smaller format stores. Jonathan Birchall. Financial Times. London (UK): Sep 20, 2010. pg. 1

Walmart lines up sites for smaller stores. Jonathan Birchall. Financial Times. London (UK): Sep 20, 2010. pg. 15

[EDIT TO ADD LINK TO AP STORY]

The AP has the story now too at this link: http://apne.ws/b8nNUz or via StarTribune.com at this link: http://www.startribune.com/business/103300079.html