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.

The story of retailer Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.'s (NYSE: WMT) growth in the last 18 months or so has not been well-received by the market or many of the company's larger shareholders. Add that to the fact that Wal-Mart shares have not really moved anywhere in the last 60 months and you have to wonder if the company will ever be able to get back to the growth it witnessed in the late 1990s. Can such a large company maintain torrid growth? If history serves, it's very hard to perform such an action. Scratch that -- it's virtually possible.

By now, even Wal-Mart has said as much -- more than the ubiquitous Supercenter will be needed if the retailing behemoth is to grow in the U.S. market, which is its largest by far. Other global retailers are competing just fine with the retailer in markets outside the U.S., with Europe's Tesco being one of them. In fact, Wal-Mart took a different turn in 2006 by joining with or buying competitors in China (Trust-Mart) and India (Bharti) to gain an instant foothold in those growing markets.

Welcome to the third installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly -- a new weekly column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions and just a bit of everything else when it comes down to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

Last week I discussed my recent field trips to a local Wal-Mart Supercenter and my discovery of the inventory situation going on in the grocery section. I made it a point in my last column to really get a feel for what a regular Wal-Mart shopper goes through, and I used what I believed to be the worst case scenario just to get to the heart of the matter: Shopping for popular groceries on a Sunday evening.

This week, I decided to plunge into the retailer's sales growth over the last five years and see what its stock price had done at the same time. Results? Another interesting load of discoveries here. Join me and let's enter the labyrinth of comparisons on that, shall we?

Are traditional grocery stores headed for a showdown with Wal-Mart Store Inc. (NYSE:WMT) and Target Corp. (NYSE:TGT) soon? By all indications, they already are, as the two largest discount retailers in the U.S. have been fighting with grocery chains like Publix, Albertsons and Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR) for a while now. Wal-Mart has the "Supercenter" and even the grocery-only "Neighborhood Market" while Target has the "SuperTarget." These examples all carry a full line of grocery items.

In fact, a recent piece of research shows that 46% of shoppers prefer to shop for food where they can also purchase items like clothing, home accessories and CDs. Should that fact alone scare food retailers that could lose (or are losing) customers to the larger discount chains that are placing "everything merchandisable" under one roof and into one trip?

While some customers shop on convenience and atmosphere -- both of which can be hard to find at a Wal-Mart or Target location -- many shop on price and "one stop shop" alone. What are grocery chains doing about it? Well, traditional grocery stores appear to be reinventing product mixes and creating niches to maintain market share and sustain sales growth. At the same time, these grocery chains are trying to capture the attention of an increasingly disloyal army of shoppers who are tired of the "one stop shop" approach. What can they do? Offer customers something unique, as in excellent customer care, eclectic and exclusive products or an innovative store floor plan.

Yesterday, the San Diego city council voted to ban certain kinds of large retail stores from the city limits. The council did not explicitly mention Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT), but the definition of the stores to be prohibited makes it pretty clear that they had the giant retailer in mind.

Specifically, the nation's eight largest city voted to ban stores that are larger than 90,000 square feet and that use at least 10 percent of their floor space to sell groceries, which are not taxed in California. Apparently, only Wal-Mart Supercenters meet this criteria. Wal-Mart Supercenters are on average 185,000 square feet and offer groceries along with the usual Wal-Mart products.

Jerry Sanders, the mayor of San Diego, has threatened to veto the measure. He claims that city council is engaging in "social engineering." Supporters of the measure made the usual points: Wal-Mart drives local shops out of business, provides low wages, and creates traffic problems and pollution around its giant stores.

The struggle between Wal-mart and its critics has been going on for years now. Chicago city council recently voted for a living wage measure that was aimed largely at Wal-Mart and would have forced the company to pay higher wages to its workers in the city. However, the mayor of Chicago overrode city council's vote. Will the same thing happen in San Diego? Are these mayors simply corporate stooges, willing to do whatever it takes to allow Wal-Mart to make lots of money in their cities? Or are they looking out for their citizens' best interests, trying to attract retail jobs and fight high unemployment, no matter what the wages? Maybe it's a little bit of both.

At its annual two-day analyst meeting, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) has outlined its plan for continued overall growth despite slower implied capital spending growth beyond next year. The plan was presented by Tom Schoewe, Wal-Mart Stores executive vice president and chief financial officer.

Global square footage is expected to increase by approximately 7.5% in fiscal 2008. The company also said that it estimates capital expenditures for its next fiscal year will grow at a significantly lower rate than spending for the current fiscal year.

"The Company projects its capital spending in fiscal 2008 to increase by approximately 2 to 4 percent, which compares to the 15 to 20 percent increase forecast for fiscal 2007," said CFO Schoewe.

Wal-Mart expects to open more than 600 new locations in the United States and around the world. The Company's expansion program will add approximately 60 million square feet next year through a variety of formats worldwide before any possible future acquisitions.

"We are still very committed to growth, but our real estate projects are now being subjected to a more rigorous prioritization process," explained Wal- Mart Vice Chairman John Menzer. "This store selection process will enable the Company to drive higher returns by focusing on locations that make the most efficient use of capital."

CFO Schoewe said that the company will continue growing through new unit expansion, acquisitions and same-store sales.

Jon Ogg is a partner in 24/7 Wall St., LLC; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

In this story to the editor of the Lancaster, MA Sentinel, a resident chimes in on why she feels a new Wal-Mart Supercenter would be great for the area. This customer writes that she lives too far away from the area now and likes to make a single trip on a regular interval to get everything she needs -- hopefully in one place. She also mentions that the local K-Mart -- which is still 20 minutes away from her -- has lost its appeal amid perceived higher prices than Wal-Mart.

This letter to the editor underscores a brewing pot of Wal-Mart apprectiation from rural residents who like to make a single trip per week or even month to get all their supplies in one place (gas-saving etiquette is good) while having access to the lowest prices they can (even if the low prices are based in perception and not reality, but that's another post).

Are rural residents all around the country fans of the Wal-Mart Supercenter "retail platform"? Most likely -- for all the reasons this lady details in her letter. Gas savings, one-stop-shop and low prices all combine in the mixing bowl to make a Wal-Mart Supercenter very attractive to many rural residents, even as urban residents decry the town-busting feature some Wal-Mart Supercenters create when smaller retailers are not able to compete.