Walmart to open grocery store with pharmacy/The Record

By Reed Fujii
Record Staff Writer
February 14, 2012 12:00 AMSTOCKTON - Walmart will take over a long-vacant supermarket at March and West lanes and convert it to a Walmart Market, its neighborhood grocery and pharmacy design, the nation's largest retailer confirmed Monday.

Walmart officials in 2011 said they could open as many as 100 such stores nationwide this year.

The store, with about 54,000 square feet of floor space, will open later this year or in early 2013, providing groceries, pharmaceutical services and products, and general merchandise, said Delia Garcia, a Walmart spokeswoman based in Phoenix.

"Our goal is to bring fresh, affordable groceries to the community," Garcia said Monday in a telephone interview. "In addition, there will be about 95 new jobs created with this new store."

The site formerly housed a Food Maxx store.

Garcia said the new store also should have an impact on the Calaveras Square shopping center, which occupies the northwest corner of the busy interchange.

"It's an opportunity to revitalize a currently vacant property and bring energy and economic development to that whole center," she said.

Existing tenants of the shopping complex could not agree more.

"Having a name-brand supermarket in there would totally benefit the center," said Karen Scheflo, owner of the UPS Store there. "It would be great to have something in there. It's been empty since 2007."

For Randy Thomas, owner of the aquarium and pet fish store Randy's Fish Palace in Calaveras Square, Monday's news came as something of a vindication.

"I came in three years ago believing the center was going to resurrect," he said. "This corner is going to be like ... Lazarus, going to rise from the dead."

Garcia said Walmart is seeking a contractor to renovate the location and hopes to have the project under way shortly.

"It'll feature a wide variety of products, including fresh produce, meats and dairy products, frozen foods, dry goods and staples, general merchandise and household supplies," she said.

Contact reporter Reed Fujii at (209) 546-8253 or rfujii@recordnet.com.

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