Wal-Mart opens 36 new stores in October; 163 so far in 2007

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) announced this week that it had completed the opening of 36 new stores and wholesale clubs across the U.S. for the month of October. This could be seen as a PR effort to trumpet the new jobs these locations have created in several nationwide communities.

Indeed, Wal-Mart stated that 10,800 new jobs will be available for new associates in these just-opened locations, along with an additional 4,300 new associates having been hired to fill positions at expanded and relocated stores nationally as well. Well, for a company that has publicly said that it will slow down store growth to make existing stores more profitable and temper market saturation, it's hard how to read this news outside of the "job creation" angle. Perhaps there's not one.

As one would expect by now, Wal-Mart COO Bill Simon worked in the retailer's corporate motto by stating that these new locations would be "helping our customers nationwide save money so they can live better." With the holiday shopping season arriving and home equity borrowing slumping due to shrinking home sales, those words carry more weight now than at anytime this year.

The new stores are spread across 22 states, from Oklahoma to Florida. Since February of this year, the world's largest retailer has opened 163 new Supercenters and 19 Sam's Clubs, among other store formats. Job creation count? 61,500, according to Wal-Mart.