At Lowe's, a flurry of openings

Mooresville, N.C.-based Lowe's opened eight new stores in July, including six store openings on July 30 and 31.

The six newest stores are located in Hamburg, N.Y; Hornell, N.Y.; Marrero, La.; Summerville, S.C.; South Durham, N.C.; and Mt. Juliet, Tenn. Earlier last month, the company opened stores in Petal, Miss.; and Torrington, Conn.

The stores opened in July range in size from 94,000 square feet to 117,000 square feet.

The July 30 and 31 openings marked the busiest two-day opening spree for the retailer so far this year. But the busiest single day of 2009 has been Feb. 2, when the company opened five new stores. Lowe's also opened nine new stores in a five-day span in early February.

The Mooresville, N.C.-based retailer is anticipating opening 60 to 70 stores in 2009, a figure that was adjusted down from an earlier forecast of 75 to 85. Since Lowe's fiscal year began Jan. 31, the company has opened 37 stores, including four in Canada.

Lowe's 2009 plans are well ahead of Home Depot's plans for 13 new store openings in the current year -- five in the United States. Still, Home Depot is the store-count leader, with 2,241 stores, compared to Lowe's 1,675 stores.