BURLINGTON-- A popular shopping destination for Tri-State consumers may be growing.

Store officials this morning said the Wal-Mart store in Burlington will be renovated into a Wal-Mart Supercenter.

Store officials say construction is set to begin in March on a four- wall expansion. That means additional space will be added to each of the four sides of the building.

Expansion on one end of the building will fill in the space between Wal-Mart and Sam's Club. To accommodate the additional space, Wal-Mart officials had to purchase two acres of adjoining land on one

side of it's property. The expansion project should be completed by early 2004, store officials say.

The news of Wal-Mart's expansion is being welcomed by local business and industry officials.

"It can only help us," Patricia Clonch, Executive Director of the Greater Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce said. "The more jobs we can create and the more revenue we can generate, the better off we'll be.

"Sam's and Wal-Mart have created a good traffic flow in that area, and as a result other stores and restaurants have located there. We've got a good hub of activities there, with Sam's, Wal-Mart and Lowe's."

John Bizio, a Wal-Mart district official, could not be reached for comment this morning.

Wal-Mart was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton. The first Wal-Mart store was opened in Rogers, Ark. that year.

At Jan. 31, 2002, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

operated 1,647 discount stores, 1,066 Supercenters, 500 SAM’S clubs and 31 neighborhood markets in the United States. Internationally, at Jan. 31, 2002, the company operated units in Argentina (11), Brazil (22), Canada (196), Germany (95), South Korea (9) Mexico (551), Puerto Rico (17) and the United Kingdom (250), and under joint venture agreements in China (19).

The company operates through three segments, the Wal-Mart Stores segment, the SAM'S Club segment and the International segment.

The company, based in Bentonville, Ark., employs

more than 1.3 million people worldwide.