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Today's Valley Business Blog is taking a field trip south of the border.

Reynosa gets a lot of bad press for drug cartel shootouts but what you don't hear is how the bustling border city is in the middle of a building boom.

It seems like every week, new buildings, shopping centers and factories are added to the bustling city of 1 million people.

Thousands of people stopped by the city's first WalMart store, which held its grand opening on Black Friday.  

Located near the intersection of Boulevard Hidalgo and Avenida El Pasito, the WalMart store is sitting on ideal property between two of the city's busiest shopping centers: Plaza Real and Plaza Periferico.

The new location is also handy to the Anzalduas International Bridge, which now appears on Google maps almost two years after its December 2009 inauguration.

According to Mexican media reports, the Reynosa WalMart directly employs more than 250 people.

WalMart first started business in Mexico back in the early 1990s but didn't get to name their stores WalMart until after February 2000.

According to the WalMart Mexico website, the Reynosa WalMart is the seventh store in the State of Tamaulipas.

There are two WalMart stores in Tampico as well as others in Victoria, Madero, Nuevo Laredo and Matamoros.

By comparison, the four counties of Rio Grande Valley have 16 WalMart stores.

The Reynosa store's opening is not expected to affect sales at stores on the American side of the border.