America's Biggest Walmart Is Over 45% Larger Than A Normal Supercenter

Your local Walmart Supercenter is already a spectacle. Each one stands at an average of 178,000 square feet, and their spacious aisles are filled with everything you could possibly need from groceries to clothes to electronics. They're so massive that they can even host garden centers, pharmacies, hair salons, and fast food restaurants like Wienerschnitzels, functioning more like a mini mall than a grocery store. Now imagine something of this size, scaled up by another 40%. The final boss of Wally Worlds.

America's largest grocery store chain's largest U.S. location is situated in Albany, New York. It weighs in at a total of 260,000 square feet, making it just over 46% larger than your average Walmart Supercenter. It doesn't just stretch outwards forever and ever, either. It was able to achieve its weighty status by growing vertically and spanning out across two separate floors. It is one of the very few Walmart locations to operate on multiple levels.

Albany's Walmart location used to be modest in size. The store was built in 1994, and Walmart originally only operated on the one floor upstairs. It was also a Walmart Division 1 location, meaning it focused mostly on general merchandise with only a limited selection of dry grocery items.

Before taking over the second floor, Walmart shared the space with a familiar roommate. Down below, the space was used by Sam's Club — the membership-only wholesale club that also happens to be owned by Walmart.

This dual function worked for a while. But eventually, in 2008, Sam's Club shut its doors, and instead of replacing it with another store, Walmart decided to expand its own business downwards. So, the lower level became grocery central, and the top level now houses everything else, including electronics, automotive, apparel, toys, and even a garden center. A hole was also cut in the middle to connect the two spaces and to make room for escalators and stairs for customers to travel up and down. Wondering how the carts make the journey? Standard elevators were also added, in addition to what's known as the "cartalator," which is a special escalator just for carts that runs alongside the one for humans.

As you can imagine, such a large store requires a large number of employees. The Albany location employs around 360 associates. The double-decker Walmart may house even more employees during busy times like the holidays or in August, when students at the nearby State University of New York at Albany are moving back in.