Walmart Stores has reviewed their performance and has come to conclusion that their financial performance has fallen significantly along with their lack for a strategic alignment with long-term plans. Therefore they have decided to announce that they are planning to close 269 stores in the United States. This is going to have a huge impact on 16,000 Walmart associates worldwide.
Doug McMillon, CEO and president of Walmart said, “Actively managing our portfolio of assets is essential to maintaining a healthy business. 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”.
They will be closing 154 locations in the U.S., including 102 Walmart Express’ and 23 Neighborhood Markets. Their plan is to focus on strengthening their Supercenters and Neighborhood Markets while also growing their e-commerce business and expanding pickup services for their customers.
They also plan to open 50 to 60 Supercenters and 85-95 Neighborhood markets worldwide in 2017. And although the associates of closing stores will be impacted, they hope to move those associates to nearby locations. If they cannot place all associates in a nearby locations they are offering to provide 60 days of pay and severance to give them time to find another job.
