Walmart has spent more than $110 million buying malls this year in a move to become a property owner, not just a tenant

While Americans are buying trash bags and Great Value soda at Walmart, Walmart is buying…malls.

The big-box colossus just snagged a Norwalk, CT, retail plaza for $44.5 million, beating out a “substantial” amount of interest in the space by laying out the juiciest offer, according to Jeff Kintzer, a principal at Royal Properties, which represented the seller.

A Walmart store anchors the shopping center, so the chain moving from lessee to owner doesn’t inspire much intrigue by itself. As the New York Times reported, Walmart already owns most of its locations. But the deal is part of an emerging pattern: • In May, Walmart bought another shopping center in Bethel Park, PA, where it was also the anchor tenant. • Perhaps most interestingly, Walmart bought a different Pennsylvania mall in J