After Christmas, Lowe's gets busy

Mooresville, N.C.-based Lowe’s is planning a barrage of day-after-Christmas store openings that will bring more than 700,000 square feet of new retailing space to the nation’s second largest home improvement retailer.

On Dec. 26, Lowe’s will open in the following seven locations: Oak Grove Village, Mo. (94,000 square feet); Derby, Conn. (102,000 square feet); South Lebanon, Ohio (117,000 square feet); League City, Texas (117,000 square feet); East San Jose, Calif. (117,000 square feet); Tarboro, N.C. (66,000 square feet); and Pineville, La. (94,000 square feet).

And the end of its most recent quarter, Lowe’s operated 1,616 stores. The company expects to open approximately 120 stores in 2008, scaling back to 75 to 85 new store openings in 2009.