Walmart Closing 154 U.S. Stores

Walmart said Jan. 15 that it will close 269 stores globally; 154 of them are in the U.S.

The U.S. stores that will close include the company’s 102 smallest format stores, Walmart Express, which had been in pilot since 2011.

Walmart said it will instead focus on its supercenters, Neighborhood Markets and growing its e-commerce business as well as expanding pickup services for customers.

Also included in the closures are 23 Neighborhood Markets, 12 supercenters, seven stores in Puerto Rico, six discount centers and four Sam’s Clubs.

The company said in October that an active review of its store portfolio was under way. The closings follow a 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.

“Actively managing our portfolio of assets is essential to maintaining a healthy business,” said Doug McMillon, president and CEO. “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.”

The 115 stores outside the U.S. include 60 recently closed locations in Brazil, which represents 5 percent of sales in that market. The remaining 55 stores are primarily small stores in other Latin American markets.

Walmart still intends to open 50 to 60 supercenters and 85 to 95 Neighborhood Markets in fiscal 2017, which begins Feb. 1. In the same period, Sam’s Club plans to open in seven to 10 new locations. Internationally, Walmart intends to open between 200 and 240 stores this year.