Wal-Mart Stores, which has faced mounting criticism for its effect on local businesses and communities,said it will build more than 50 stores in struggling neighborhoods over the next two years.

The world’s largest retailer said yesterday it will open the new stores in areas with high rates of crime or unemployment, on sites that are environmentally contaminated, or in vacant buildings or shopping malls in need of revitalization. Wal-Mart said it expects the stores, many of which will be in minority communities, to create between 15,000 and 25,000 jobs, and generate more than $100 million in state and local tax revenue.

Wal-Mart, faced over the years with criticism that its giant stores drive local mom-and-pop retailers out of business, also said it will create 10 zones around the new stores that will offer development grants to local businesses. Wal-Mart will offer seminars to minority- and women-owned businesses on how to become Wal-Mart suppliers and “thrive with a Wal-Mart in their community.”

In addition to improving its image as a corporate citizen, the Bentonville, Ark., retailer is looking for new areas to grow in America. Some analysts estimate the company’s oversized supercenters will saturate their traditional rural and suburban markets within the next five years. The company, which currently operates nearly 3,900 stores across America, plans to open as many as 375 Wal-Mart stores this year.

“Wal-Mart has never been afraid to invest in communities that are overlooked by other retailers,” the chief executive of Wal-Mart, Lee Scott, said in a written statement. “Where those businesses see difficulty, we see opportunity.”

But struggling neighborhoods haven’t always embraced Wal-Mart with open arms. Wal-Mart has retreated from recent bids to build stores in New York and Los Angeles amid community opposition and hostile city councils. In Cleveland, Wal-Mart is building a store on an old steel-mill site, but only after a bitter dispute with labor leaders, who have protested Wal-Mart’s anti-union policies.