Walmart to open grocery store at County Fair Mall

The grocery trade in Yolo County is about to get even more competetive. On Friday, Walmart and County Fair Fashion Mall, LLC, announced plans for a new Walmart Neighborhood Market in Woodland. The new store will occupy the long-vacant 62,000-square-foot location that was once occupied by a Mervyn’s department store, which closed in fall 2008.

The mall is at East Street and Gibson Road in Woodland.

The store will offer “a full supermarket line of fresh, affordable groceries, as well as household products, pet supplies and pharmacy services,” according to a joint news release from Walmart and County Fair Fashion Mall. The new store is expected to employ 65 to 95 people when fully staffed.

“We are expecting to open the store in the second half of 2013,” said Delia Garcia, director of communications with Walmart. She added that construction work to convert the old department store into a grocery story — including cases for frozen foods and refrigerated items — is already under way.

Walmart already has a larger store — albeit with a more limited selection of groceries — on East Main Street in Woodland.

Scott Sterlekar, director of real estate and leasing for County Fair Mall and Southern California-based Primero Management Inc., which manages the mall, said, “Walmart will be a great addition to the County Fair Fashion Mall. … This new Walmart will allow for improvement in the retail climate in the Woodland area and provide a non-competetive synergy with other County Fair Fashion Mall tenants.”

The mall is anchored by retailers JC Penney and Burlington Coat Factory, as well as Cinemark Theatres. The news release added that negotiations are under way for another new anchor for the 57,000-square-foot site formerly occupied by Gottschalks department store, which also has been vacant for several years.