Lowe's 1999 Annual Report Download - page 9

7
Lowe’s Stores
(includes projected store openings in fiscal 2000)
Alabama 20 Alaska 1
Arizona 5 Arkansas 8
California 24 Colorado 7
Connecticut 4 Delaware 4
Florida 39 Georgia 28
Hawaii 2 Idaho 2
lllinois 14 Indiana 22
Iowa 5 Kansas 3
Kentucky 22 Louisiana 12
Maryland 16 Massachusetts 1
Michigan 19 Mississippi 9
Missouri 13 Montana 1
Nevada 5 New Jersey 3
New Mexico 1 New York 11
North Carolina 72 Ohio 48
Oklahoma 9 Oregon 1
Pennsylvania 31 South Carolina 30
Tennessee 32 Texas 53
Utah 5 Virginia 41
Washington 18 West Virginia 12
40 states, 653 stores
Kobalt tools, Reliabilt doors and windows, and Top
Choice lumber.
Breaking New Ground
Lowe’s aggressive square footage growth
makes us the third fastest-growing retailer in the
country. In 2000, we will open 95 new stores totaling
10.5 million square feet of sales floor – an 18 percent
increase over 1999.
Choosing our target markets is no small feat,
and Lowe’s dedicates considerable resources to
placing stores where they are most needed. Our Real
Estate Research and Acquisition Groups carefully
analyze the benefits and challenges of each potential
location before recommending a site to Lowe’s Real
Estate Committee. This exceptionally thorough process
has helped Lowe’s to better project and manage our
growth, mapping our planned site selection and
expansion process farther into the future than ever
before. In addition to the 95 new stores slated for
opening this fiscal year, the Real Estate Committee
has approved 125 new stores to be opened in 2001.
Our greatest expansion opportunities are ahead
of us as we bring our proven, superior store concept
into exciting, dynamic markets throughout the United
States. Over the next several years, our expansion will
take place in the western United States, where cities
such as Los Angeles, Phoenix and Las Vegas are
attracting thousands of newcomers each day …
highly concentrated northeastern cities such as
Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and New York … and Florida,
where many mature Boomers are building their
vacation homes. Large markets, such as these, have
attractive demographic profiles that bode well for the
success of our stores.
Even with such far-reaching geographical plans,
Lowe’s product distribution and delivery will remain at
today’s highest levels because of Lowe’s extensive
distribution network. Our five state-of-the-art regional
distribution centers (RDCs) are strategically placed
throughout “ Lowe'sland” and are unmatched in our
industry.
We have always believed in efficiently
managing the flow of goods between our vendors and
our customer, and historically, logistics has been a
fundamental part of retail. However, as the retail
landscape continues to evolve and e-commerce
intensifies, we foresee that retail will become reliant
on highly advanced logistical capabilities that will
differentiate great retailers from good retailers. In
anticipation of this trend, as well as facilitating our
future growth, we will open three new RDCs over the
next two years. These extraordinary facilities control