With gasoline prices up and money tight, more Americans are trying to shop closer to home. This would be a great moment to have a grocery store just around the corner.

Yet the past decade has left grocery-sized holes in neighborhoods all over the region and the country. From Lawrenceville to Shaler to Scottdale and Oakmont, residents and officials bemoan gaps left by the closing of longtime food stores.

Never fear, the grocery industry has an answer.

Wal-Mart tomorrow is scheduled to launch a venture into the small community grocery store arena with openings in the Phoenix, Ariz., market. Last year, United Kingdom-based Tesco introduced a small grocery format, Fresh & Easy, to West Coast markets even as O'Hara-based Giant Eagle was heating up the ovens at its first Express prototype in Harmarville.

And there are more. Grocers such as Safeway and Jewel-Osco also are experimenting with stores that offer more than the typical convenience store but much less than the 50,000- to 100,000-square-foot super grocer, not to mention a 175,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter.

"It's kind of the re-emergence of the small market stores," said Jennifer Halterman, senior consultant with TNS Retail Forward, based in Columbus, Ohio. Such concepts are attractive to shoppers, she said. They like the idea of a manageable store conveniently located that carries necessities and things that might work for dinner.

Jim Pashek, of the North Side-based firm Pashek Associates, has seen firsthand the craving people have for traditional grocery stores in their neighborhoods, where they might run into friends while picking up something to make for dinner.

Not long ago, he was involved in a business development survey for the community of Scottdale in Westmoreland County. "The first thing the community said is, 'We want our grocery store back.'"

In a community meeting held this spring to talk about the future of the South Hills neighborhood of Beechview, the grocery issue was part of the discussion. According to a typed summary of the comments, citizens wanted to see improvements in the local Foodland store but were happy to even have it.

"We are lucky to have [the independent store owner] -- and that he didn't close the store," according to one quote that went on to add, "He has been a blessing to our community."

Oakmont resident Mike Cebulak missed the Giant Eagle on Allegheny River Boulevard that closed in the summer of 2007 so much he started a Web page, OakmontGrocery.com, to encourage residents to write letters and recruit a replacement. In 10 months, the site has had about 1,500 page views.

Experiments such as the Giant Eagle Express, a 14,000-square-foot store opened along Freeport Road in the spring of 2007, seem to raise hopes. Matt Wohlfarth, a resident of Shaler, wrote to the newspaper suggesting an empty Foodland site on Mount Royal Boulevard might make a good site for an Express.

A year later, he's been to the test store in Harmarville and recognizes it's not quite the same kind of grocery his mom sent him to on errands when he grew up in Brookline. But he thinks it might at least re-create some of the effect people are seeking in Shaler. "It'll give more of a village feel if there is a store there," said Mr. Wohlfarth.

Old-fashioned smaller groceries provided a service. People could shop near home and, in some cases, never have to get into a car. Often such places also served as a de facto community center where youths might do fund-raisers, parents might talk about the football game and everybody knew where to find the peanut butter.

"That's what I think people are kind of wishing for," said Mr. Pashak.

Yet as population levels have dropped in many Pittsburgh-area neighborhoods and grocery chains have discovered the drawing power of large stores with room for a broader variety of merchandise, smaller stores have struggled.

Mr. Pashak said Beechview, which he also has worked with, is considering trying to expand a senior center across the street from the Foodland and perhaps acquire nearby properties to kick-start development to bring more business to the area. That could strengthen the community and the grocery, too.

In Scottdale, a grocery had already left to be replaced by one more accessible to busier roads. A consultant said the community didn't have the demographics to support another full-service grocery, so the municipality was advised to think in terms of developing a collection of small shops, such as a specialty butcher store.

But that site, it would seem, also might be a place that could support one of the new small format grocery stores. Companies see the small stores as a way to fill in the gap between convenience stores, such as Giant Eagle's GetGos, and the large stores where consumers might go to take care of stocking up the pantry, said Ms. Halterman.

The Express location offers produce, a deli, a drive-thru pharmacy, a free Wi-Fi cafe, a DVD rental machine, a prepared foods area with heat-and-serve meals and a small bakery.

Wal-Mart's online pitch for its new Marketside stores describes places that carry 300 varieties of produce, some organic, as well as a butcher and bakery area. There will be an emphasis on prepared foods -- "faster than a grocery store, more affordable than a restaurant." The stores are estimated to be 10,000 to 15,000 square feet.

Ms. Halterman said smaller formats can offer a foothold in certain areas that wouldn't support a big grocery.

Tesco officials claimed in a recent newsletter they've put the stores in places such as South Los Angeles that may have been underserved by modern groceries.

Pittsburgh's Hill District, another neighborhood that has felt abandoned by the grocery industry, has been trying to land a store. Recent talks have been with the limited assortment Save-A-Lot chain and with more traditional grocer Kuhn's.

"It would be challenging to put a store there," said Dan Sakala, advertising director for the small chain. He said city officials initially approached Kuhn's but that nothing had been decided.

Kuhn's, which is based in Ross and has stores that range in size from 17,000 to 55,000 square feet, has done more than one conversion in recent years. It picked up stores when grocery distributor SuperValu sold company-owned Shop 'n Save locations. This summer, it converted a 21,000-square-foot former Foodland in Wilkins. A former Shop 'n Save in Hopewell should soon become a Kuhn's.

The grocer's more traditional version of stores seems to be in demand. "We get tons of calls here," said Mr. Sakala, who noted a lot of requests come from people in the South Hills and in the Butler area.

Not every location works. Mr. Sakala said Kuhn's needed at least 10,000 people coming through the doors every week.

Still, he said the company's smallest store, in Bellevue, isn't far from competitors' locations but does more sales volume than some other Kuhn's sites. Being tucked into a residential area such as its Ingomar location has advantages, too. "When the gas [price] goes up, it's actually better for us."

Talk that Giant Eagle might put an Express store on the North Side had residents there very interested. "Our community was definitely wanting one," said Jerome Jackson, associate director of the Manchester Citizens Corp. He's waiting to hear if anything will come of that discussion.

But in Oakmont, Mr. Cebulak would rather get a version of the upscale Market District format that Giant Eagle has in Shadyside and Bethel Park. The grocer seems to be going larger with that. Plans are under way for a 100,000-square-foot version in Robinson.

Sometimes a grocery store isn't the only answer for those trying to re-create a gathering place. Mr. Cebulak noted another solution would be for the municipality to buy the empty building and turn it into space everyone can use.

But he'll still miss being able to walk to the grocery store. "Having one and then having it taken away is tough."