Mariela Bustamante Mora

Wal-Mart Centroamérica serves the countries where it operates in five different store formats to satisfy their client needs under the standard of best quality at the lowest price. Wal-Mart Centroamérica has 502 stores across Central America. Globally Wal-Mart has 7,390 stores and Sam's Club locations in 14 markets and employs more than 2 million associates, serving more than 200 million customers per year. Wal-Mart in Costa Rica continued the company's expansion into Central America in a big way last year, by purchasing controlling interest in the majority of Costa Rica's supermarkets. And since then the company continues to expand and opened its first large Wal-Mart store in July of 2007, a new Hipermás retail store located in Escazú, a western suburb of San José. Is a 6,500-square-meter store which cost a total of $17 million, $730,000 of which went for public works improvements in the area, Wal-Mart officials said. A similar Hipermás is set to open within a month in Cartago, east of San José. That will bring the total Hipermás stores operated by Wal-Mart Costa Rica to six, along with 136 supermarkets of other brands, like Palí and Más X Menos. In March of last year, Wal-Mart acquired a controlling stake in the Central American Holding Company, whose name was then changed to Wal-Mart Centroamérica. The company controls 413 supermarkets throughout the region. It plans to open 64 new stores in Central America by the year's end.