Retail giant Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT) got some bad news and some good news on either side of the U.S.-Canadian border.

On the American side, Wal-Mart was forced to scrap a plan to construct a store near a Civil War battlefield site in Virginia.

Wal-Mart originally had approval to build a store near the Wilderness Battlefield, but some local residents and historians went to court to try to block it. They eventually prevailed.

North of the border, Wal-Mart Canada plans to open new 40 supercentres, thereby expanding its already large presence in the country. The expansion, at a cost of $500-million, will see new facilities in Manitoba and Quebec

By the end of February the company will have 325 stores in Canada -- 124 of which will be supercentres.
Wal-Mart opened its first supercentre in Ontario in 2006.

Wal-Mart likely seeks to battle for market share with Target, (NYSE: TGT), which recently announced that it will purchase 220 Zellers stores from the Hudson's Bay Company and eventually up to 150 Target stores in Canada.

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