In Milwaukee, one less Lowe’s

AMilwaukee Lowe’s store that opened in 2005 closed abruptly last month. That’s news, because the last time a Lowe’s store went dark was in the early 1990s.

Lowe’s said its store never met sales expectations. Two other Lowe’s stores in Milwaukee will continue to compete with two Milwaukee Home Depots within the city limits (a third Home Depot closed last year) and two Menards stores.

The closing comes shortly after Lowe’s described to investors a planned deceleration of store openings. Lowe’s will open 62 to 66 stores in 2009, not the 75 to 85 it expected at the end of last year. Plans for 2010 have also been scaled back to the 35-to-45 new store range.

“With lower market demand, Lowe’s has sharpened its criteria for new store openings and is scaling back further penetration in existing markets in favor of new stores in major metro markets and ‘virgin’ rural areas,” wrote Sanford Bernstein analyst Colin McGranahan, in a research note.

But the bigger picture for the Mooresville, N.C.-based giant is one of relative store growth. Home Depot has held itself to a virtual standstill in 2009—expecting a mere five domestic openings in total. As the chart above shows, Home Depot had a 2-to-1 store-count advantage at the beginning of the century. Not any more.