Walmart Canada is a Canadian retail corporation and the subsidiary of U.S.-based multinational retail conglomerate Walmart. Headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, it was founded on March 17, 1994, with the purchase of the Woolco Canada chain from the F. W. Woolworth Company.
Originally consisting of discount stores, many of Walmart Canada's contemporaries and competitors include Giant Tiger, Home Hardware, Canadian Tire, Mark's, Sport Chek, GameStop, Dollarama, Winners, HomeSense, Rossy, Staples Canada, Michaels, Pet Valu, the Great Canadian Dollar Store, Dollar Tree, and Hart Stores. Based on the success of the US format, Walmart Canada has focused on expanding Supercentres from new or converted locations, offering groceries which puts them in the same market as supermarket chains such as Loblaws, Real Canadian Superstore, Atlantic Superstore, Your Independent Grocer, No Frills, Metro, Sobeys, Foodland, Thrifty Foods, Safeway, Save-On-Foods, Country Grocer, Fairway Markets, Quality Foods, Co-op and others. Walmart is the second largest retailer in Canada by revenue.
As of October 31, 2022, Walmart Canada has 402 stores operating, including 343 supercentres and 59 discount stores in almost every province and territory except for Nunavut. Walmart Canada's principal developer and landlord is SmartCentres; other significant landlords include Riocan and First Capital Realty.
It is a participant in the voluntary Scanner Price Accuracy Code managed by the Retail Council of Canada.
History
Walmart Canada was established on January 14, 1994 through the acquisition by Walmart of 122 Canadian leases of Woolco, a troubled subsidiary of Woolworth Canada. The same year, these Woolco stores were renovated and converted into the Walmart banner. Wal-Mart did not acquire 22 other Woolco stores that were either unionized or had downtown locations. Some former Woolco stores were sold and re-opened as Zellers stores.
All 16,000 former employees of the Woolco stores that Walmart acquired were retained, retrained, and given a five percent raise. Mario Pilozzi, a senior vice-president at Woolco when the deal was signed, eventually became CEO of Walmart Canada. Pilozzi, who retired in 2008, has proclaimed that he and "his management team took a limping chain and turned it into the Walmart powerhouse that became a game-changer on the Canadian business scene. Retailers changed, Canadian manufacturers faced demands and volumes they had not seen before, real estate transitioned from enclosed malls to big-box plazas". Reflecting on the 1994 deal in 2013, a Walmart Canada spokesman was quoted as saying "Even though Woolco had seen better days and was struggling, there was still an enormous amount of talent in that company. I think that is one of the reasons Walmart has succeeded in Canada, is because we started with a fantastic team that we re-motivated".
Since 1994, many of the shopping centres in which Walmart is located have been developed by SmartCentres (originally known as First Pro), a real estate company founded by Mitchell Goldhar. At present, Smartcentres is the landlord for approximately 100 Walmarts in Canada.
Beginning in the fall of 2006, Walmart opened new Supercentres in Canadian cities. Walmart Canada also operated Sam's Club stores in Ontario from 2003 to 2009. On February 26, 2009, they announced that it would close all six of its Canadian Sam's Club locations. This was part of Walmart Canada's decision to shift focus towards Supercenter stores, but some industry observers suggested that the operation was struggling to compete with Costco and the non-membership Real Canadian Superstore (known as Maxi & Cie in Quebec). Sam's Club also rebranded two unopened locations as new Walmart Supercentres.
From originally taking over much of the Woolco chain, Walmart Canada has expanded and opened new stores. It grew to 260 stores by 2005, making it Canada's second-largest retail chain.
In 2011, Walmart Canada acquired the leases of 39 Zellers stores from Target, originally one of the 189 leaseholds purchased from Hudson's Bay Company and slated for conversion to Target Canada stores. Walmart Canada managed to convert and reopen some of the former Zellers stores before Target Canada's launch. Unlike Walmart's 1994 move into Canada, Walmart Canada this time did not guarantee the jobs of the employees whose stores it was acquiring.
Walmart Canada launched the "Urban 90" format in 2012, a set of smaller Supercentres averaging .