From AP writer Anne D'Innocenzio via the Miami Herald: "In rural Arkansas, the first drugstore-sized Walmart Express store offers a peek at how the world's largest retailer plans to expand in big cities and tiny towns. The long, narrow concrete box, which features a powder-blue Walmart Express sign, is less than one-tenth of the size of a super center. The store, which has exposed pipes and yellow walls, carries most of the basics that its bigger cousin carries, from bacon and milk to socks and DVDs. Wal-Mart is experimenting with a Walmart Express prototype for urban markets in Chicago, to open later this summer. Walmart's U.S. business has been chipped away by dollar stores, which have adroitly maneuvered the post-recession economy. Dollar stores [are] expanding quickly, opening stores closer to customers' homes, an advantage in era of high gas prices. Already, the average round trip to a dollar store is six miles, compared with 30 miles for a typical Wal-Mart trip, Credit Suisse analyst Michael Exstein estimates." Full article here. (Photo credit: Chuck Bartels.)