Walmart Canada has picked up 13 former Target stores and a distribution centre in Canada.
Walmart says it will spend $350 million to acquire and renovate the properties, and expects to hire 3,400 workers for the stores. The mega-retailer will spend $165 million paying for the leases and $185 million renovating the new stores, which it expects to generate 1,500 trade and construction jobs.
Four of the stores are located in B.C.: Scottsdale Mall in Delta, Central City in Surrey, Haney Place Mall in Maple Ridge and Coquitlam Centre.
The deal is still subject to approval from Canada's Competition Bureau, as per Target Canada's exit agreement.
Target hastily exited the Canadian market in January after seeing disappointing sales in this country. The departure put 18,000 people out of work across Canada, including around 2,000 in B.C.
Retailers have been struggling to survive in an intensely competitive marketplace, while at the same time many are scrambling to adapt to online shopping. In March, Best Buy closed 66 stores across Canada. Over the past two years, mid-market clothing chains Jacob, Mexx Canada and Bootlegger have liquidated their stores.
Earlier this week, Canadian Tire announced it was buying a dozen leases for $17.7 million former Target Canada stores.
Four of those locations are in B.C.: Courtney, Victoria, Cranbrook and Vernon.
The locations aren't in the prime real estate hub of Metro Vancouver, which is why Canadian Tire is spending so much less to buy leases.
@jenstden
