Walmart to close 154 stores in the US

[OntarioVanMan]

Of the closures announced Friday, 154 locations will be in the U.S., including the company's 102 smallest-format stores called Walmart Express, which were opened as a test in 2011.

Walmart Express marked the retailer's first entry into the convenience store arena. The stores are about 12,000 square feet and sell essentials like toothpaste. But the concept never caught on as the stores served the same purpose as Walmart's larger Neighborhood Markets: fill-in trips and prescription pickups.

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

Walmart will now focus in the U.S. on supercenters, Neighborhood Markets, the e-commerce business and pickup services for shoppers.

Walmart said that it's still sticking to its plan announced last year to open 50 to 60 supercenters, 85 to 95 Neighborhood Markets and 7 to 10 Sam's Clubs in the U.S. during the fiscal year that begins Feb. 1

* At least they are backing off the mom and pop format....

Walmart to close 154 stores in the US; 10,000 workers affected | Fox News

 

[Turtle]

Walmart launched the small format stores as a direct defensive move to thwart the world's #3 retailer Tesco's Fresh and Easy Markets. Currently, the world's top 10 largest retailers are Walmart, Costco, Tesco, Carrefour, Schwarz Unternehmens Treuhand (actually the second largest in terms of revenues), Kroger, Metro Ag, Aldi, Home Depot and Target. So when the #3 retailer in the world opens up shop in your own back yard, you go into combat mode.

The Fresh and Easy Markets were just awesome in that everything in there was organic, and they made homemade meals from scratch throughout the day and packaged them for quick and easy reheating in the oven or the microwave. I shopped at one of the Vegas locations many times. The food was great. It was perfect for the commuter to grab some stuff on the way home to feed the family, or for people who live close to the store and could go there daily for quick meals and groceries. But they were terribly mismanaged at the administrative level, and they were mostly NOT on public transit routes or in neighborhoods where daily shopping was an easy task. Most were in former Rite-Aid stores or in stores built to suite of that size. In addition, they grossly misread their own research about the products they carried insofar as branding. Nearly everything was Fresh and Easy branded. When people buy laundry detergent they want Tide and Cheer, not Fresh and Easy. By the time they figured it out and altered their stock it was too late. Only about 10% of their locations made money, because only about 10% of hem were in the right locations.

Walmart made many of the same mistakes in their rush to git r dun. Instead of opening up the small format stores in inner city locations and along public transportation routes, they opened them up near Supercenters to "supplement" shopping. In (at least one location) in NW Arkansas, in the greater Rogers, Bentonville, Springdale area, they have a Walmart Supercenter and a Neighborhood Market in the same parking lot.

 

[OntarioVanMan]

the old adage....location, location, location......