Walmart to shutter all Walmart Express stores

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (Walmart), Bentonville, Ark., said it will close 269 stores in the United States and globally. The action follows a thorough review of Walmart’s nearly 11,600 worldwide stores that took into account a number of factors, including financial performance, as well as strategic alignment with long-term plans. In total, the impacted stores represent less than 1 percent of both global square footage and revenue.

The closings cover 154 locations in the United States, including all 102 of the company’s small-format Walmart Express stores, which began as a pilot operation in 2011. Walmart said it will focus instead on strengthening its Supercenters, optimizing its Neighborhood Markets, growing its e-commerce business and expanding pickup services for customers. Also covered in the closures are 23 Neighborhood Markets, 12 Supercenters, seven stores in Puerto Rico, six discount centers, and four Sam’s Clubs.

The company also said it is closing 115 stores outside the United States, include 60 recently closed, loss-making stores in Brazil, which represent only 5 percent of sales in that market. The company has already been able to relocate many affected associates in Brazil to other stores. The remaining 55 stores are primarily small, loss-making stores in other Latin American markets. Walmart will disclose more detail about those actions, including the number of stores per market, after completing local associate and community outreach.

Walmart said it will continue to invest in its future, with plans to open stores worldwide in the coming fiscal year. Domestically, Walmart intends to open 50 to 60 Supercenters and 85 to 95 Neighborhood Markets in Fiscal 2017, which begins Feb. 1. In the same period, it plans to open Sam’s Club stores in seven to 10 new locations. Internationally, Walmart said it intends to open between 200 and 240 stores during the coming year.

“Actively managing our portfolio of assets is essential to maintaining a healthy business,” said Doug McMillon, president and CEO, Walmart. “Closing stores is never an easy decision, but it is necessary to keep the company strong and positioned for the future. It’s important to remember that we’ll open well more than 300 stores around the world next year. So we are committed to growing, but we are being disciplined about it.”