Wal-Mart Canada
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wal-Mart Canada is the Canadian unit of Wal-Mart and was founded in 1994 in Mississauga, Ontario with the purchase of the Canadian Woolco stores. Wal-Mart typically competes with Zellers, Canadian Tire, Hart Stores, Giant Tiger, and Real Canadian Superstore, Costco, and increasingly grocery stores such as Loblaw and Sobeys-Thrifty Foods, Safeway, Save-On-Foods, Country Grocer, Fairway Markets, others.
Beginning in the fall of 2006, Wal-Mart opened new Supercentres in select Canadian cities with 14 new stores by the end of 2007. Wal-Mart locations already carry limited grocery items in Canada.
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[edit] History
Headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, Wal-Mart Canada was established in 1994 with the acquisition of the Woolco Canada chain of 122 stores. Wal-Mart Canada has plans to open 15-20 stores each year.
[edit] Stores
- 294 stores (includes 122 former Woolco locations)
- 29 Wal-Mart Supercentres
- 6 Sam's Clubs
- 70,000 employees
[edit] Top 5 stores in Canada
- Square One Shopping Centre, 100 City Centre Drive, Mississauga (Store 3055)
- Wal-Mart Supercentre Edmonton West, STONY PLAIN RD & 184th ST
- Marlborough Mall, Memorial Drive and 36th Street, Calgary (Store 3012)
- Wal-Mart Supercentre, 800 Warden Ave, Toronto, Ontario
- South Edmonton Common, 9717-21st Avenue N.W., Edmonton (Store 3029)
[edit] Community Involvement
- Raised and donated $3 million to Children’s Miracle Network (CMN) to support children's hospitals across Canada.
- Contributed $2.9 million to more than 1,000 local non-profit organizations through Wal-Mart's Local Matching Grant program.
- Raised and contributed $865,000 million for the Breakfast for Learning Canada program, a school nutrition program and partnership with a goal to ensure all school children attend class well nourished and ready to learn.
- Became the top corporate sponsor of the Canadian Red Cross, with $1 million in relief aid related to Hurricane Katrina, the India earthquake and other projects.
- Donated $300,000 to Evergreen, a Canadian non-profit environmental organization to help community groups create and improve green space in urban areas across the country.
- Awarded $115,000 in scholarships to Canadian university and college students.
- Supported 150 Canadian schools through a number of programs including Wal-Mart Canada's Adopt-a School program.
[edit] Supercentres in Canada
With the success of both Wal-Mart in Canada and Wal-Mart Supercenters in the United States, it was announced in late 2005 that the Supercenter (or, in Canadian English, Supercentre) concept would be arriving in Canada. On November 8, 2006, Canada's first three Supercentres opened in Ancaster (Hamilton), London, and Stouffville in Ontario. Wal-Mart opened up to 14 new Supercentres in 2007, including one in Scarborough, which is the only one in Toronto proper so far.
[edit] Controversy
For more information please see Criticism of Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart has been the subject of some criticism by certain groups who claim that Wal-Mart has lower labour standards than other similar retailers. Other criticisms centre around the claim that due to their low prices they drive out local businesses.
