Wal-Mart plans to buy the lands of its supermarkets

With soaring property prices which hit China, Wal-Mart wants to expand its network  by buying lands for its stores.

 
Until now, foreign supermarket chains rented the location of their stores. The rise in property prices is changing.
 

 
Wal-Mart plans to acquire the land where the stores are built and worked with the Chinese government in this direction.

When the location is appropriate, that the site is available and meets the needs, Wal-Mart wants to acquire the land. Wal-Mart has bought its first parcel of land to build a store in the city of Dalian, north-east of the country.
 

 
Wal-Mart China operates 329 outlets with annual sales of 7.5 billion U.S. dollars. The group plans to continue expanding its network in a country that should be the largest food retail market in the world by 2014.

 
Source: China Economic Review, bloomberg