Wal-Mart to reopen half of Japanese stores today

TOKYO, Mar 27 (Bloomberg): Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world's largest retailer, said half the stores hampered by Japan's strongest earthquake will resume normal operations today (Monday) as residents struggle to find water, food and other necessities. A dozen of Wal-Mart's Seiyu stores in the quake-hit Sendai area will reopen their doors tomorrow at full operations after having been limited mostly to relief efforts for two weeks, Scott Price, Wal-Mart's Asia chief, said in an interview today. Of the remaining 12 stores, 10 will be opened as soon as possible and two may take a "long time" because they're covered in mud, he said. Retailers from Wal-Mart to 7-Eleven operator Seven & I Holdings Co are racing to reopen stores and replenish shelves after the March 11 disaster left hundreds of thousands in the Tohoku region, northeast Japan, scrambling for shelter, food and water. The magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami knocked out more than 1,000 stores in the Tohoku and Kanto regions, according to estimates at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. "Food, daily necessities and clothes are needed as the scarcity of goods will likely continue for some time," said Mikihiko Yamato, an analyst at Japaninvest KK in Tokyo. "It's better to open shops where they can as soon as possible even with limited operating hours." In northeastern Japan, which bore the brunt of the tsunami, relief workers are struggling to provide residents with two meals a day, with self defense forces helping provide food, local authorities said. Evacuees in the hardest-hit Miyagi prefecture may rely on authorities for basic needs for the next two to three months as temporary homes are built, said a spokesman for the local disaster control headquarters who asked to be identified by his last name, Tokairin.