Per the Associated Press with an additional contribution from the Raleigh News & Observer:
North Carolina was the retailer’s primary test market for its smaller store concept. It has Express stores in Princeton, Coats, Four Oaks, Broadway, Red Springs, Stedman, Oriental, Benson, Carthage, Pikeville, Liberty, Richfield, Yanceyville, Snow Hill, Ayden and Midway.
Wal-Mart Express marked the retailer’s first entry into the convenience store arena. The stores are about 12,000 square feet and sell essentials like toothpaste. But the concept never caught on as the stores served the same purpose as Wal-Mart’s larger Neighborhood Markets: fill-in trips and prescription pickups.
Not a good day for rural North Carolina.
Also closing is a Wal-Mart Supercenter on Martin Luther King Parkway in Durham.
