WAL-MART WILL OPEN NEIGHBORHOOD MARKET IN ALABAMA NEXT YEAR

BENTONVILLE, Ark. -- Wal-Mart Stores here said it will open its first Neighborhood Market in Alabama sometime next year.

e three-state area in which all 31 Neighborhood Markets operate. Wal-Mart has previously indicated it plans to open at least two stores in the Memphis, Tenn., area later this year.

The Alabama store will be a 40,900-square-foot unit in Center Point, a suburb of Birmingham. According to a Wal-Mart spokesman, construction on the store is scheduled to begin this summer, with the opening projected for spring 2003.

He said additional expansion is planned in the Birmingham area.

Construction has already begun on a 40,000-square-foot Neighborhood Market in Horn Lake, Tenn., near Memphis, that is scheduled to open later this year. A second Memphis-area store, in Bartlett, Tenn., is also planned, the spokesman said.