Linda Williams is counting down the hours until 8 a.m. Wednesday, when the doors open to Wal-Mart’s first Chicago-area Express store — a convenience-store-sized Wal-Mart with groceries, dry goods and a pharmacy.

It is the first Wal-Mart Express in an urban area in the world.

The 10,000-square-foot store at the Chatham Market at 83rd and Stewart Avenue, off of the Dan Ryan Expressway, will be a two- to three-minute drive for Williams, a Chatham native who now lives in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood.