Wal-Mart is planning to open its new small-format Marketside grocery stores around San Diego in southern California as well as in Arizona, expanding its efforts to catch up with the rapid expansion of Tesco’s US Fresh & Easy chain.

The largest US retailer has applied for a liquor licence for a small Marketside store that is planned as part of a retail development in Oceanside, a coastal city north of San Diego. The location, still awaiting planning approval, will be just two miles from a recently opened Tesco Fresh & Easy store in the neighbouring city of Vista.

Planning documents, first reported in the local North County Times newspaper, show drawings of the proposed store with the logo prominently displayed.

Financial Times