Launched in 2011, Walmart's Express stores were designed to expand its presence in places where big stores aren't viable. While much of the press coverage of the new format focused on Express as a means of getting into dense cities, Walmart actually built the vast majority of these stores in very small towns across the rural South and Midwest. Express was a bid to corner every last bit of the market in a region where Walmart's supercenters already utterly dominate retailing in all but the smallest towns.