Walmart doubles down on Canadian brick and mortar

Walmart is marking the 20th anniversary of its entry into Canada this year by spending big bucks to expand physical stores and distribution capacity while devoting a much smaller portion of a $500 million budget to e-commerce.

Walmart said it would spend close to $500 million in Canada this year with $376 million of that amount dedicated to 35 supercenter projects totaling one million square feet of new selling space. Walmart currently operates 389 stores in Canada, of which 247 are supercenters. By year end it expects to have 395 stores of which 282 will be supercenters.

To support the expanded food footprint, $91 million of the $500 million capital expenditure budget will be used for new and existing distribution center projects. Getting the short end of the cap-ex stick is Canadian online operations where $31 million, or slightly more than 6% of the $500 million, is allocated for e-commerce projects.

“Customers in every region of Canada are looking to save money on their entire list of shopping needs,” said Shelley Broader, Walmart Canada’s president and CEO. “Delivering on our commitment to help lower the cost of living is our top priority, and our growing network of supercentres and our expanding walmart.ca offering enable us to do just that.”