Wal-Mart plans to add 60 million square feet of retail space worldwide in calendar 2006

At the recent analysts’ meeting in Bentonville, Tom Schoewe announced that Wal-Mart would add 60 million square feet of new retailing space worldwide in calendar 2006 (which is their Fiscal Year 2007).

I made a spreadsheet projection of the U.S. component of retail square footage growth out to fiscal 2016.

These numbers frankly boggle my brain and at first glance I would have guessed that a good bit of this was going to fall into the category of impossible. But maybe not. Why would it be impossible?

Rule #10 of Sam Walton's Ten Rules for Building a Business is "Swim Upstream." I think Wal-Mart has digested that rule very well.


Click on the graphic above to see the spreadsheet.