WinCo Expands to Las Vegas, Phoenix

BOISE, Idaho — WinCo Stores here said Wednesday it plans to open its first two stores in southern Nevada this Sunday and its first two Arizona stores on April 1.

The Nevada stores will be located in Las Vegas and nearby Henderson; the Arizona stores will be in Phoenix and nearby Glendale.

Each of the Las Vegas stores has been newly built and will be approximately 94,000 square feet, which is WinCo's current prototype, a company spokesman told SN. The two Arizona stores will be in existing buildings of more than 100,000 square feet each that formerly housed other retail chains, he said; however, WinCo will operate in only 90,000-plus square feet at each location and block off the remaining area at the back of the stores.

The company plans to open a new store in Bremerton, Wash., on April 1 that will be among its smallest locations — 54,600 square feet, the spokesman said. The company has a handful of stores that are smaller, he added, "but this size will serve the Bremerton market well," he noted.

Prior to the openings, WinCo operates 80 stores: 31 in California; 17 in Washington; 16 in Oregon; nine in Idaho; five in Utah; and two in Nevada, in the Reno area in the northern part of the state.