That’s in addition to between 200 and 240 global stores, and seven to 10 new Sam’s Club locations. It will be closing on January 28. And the store’s smaller footprint was also a way to allow Walmart to shoulder into shopping centers and neighborhoods where a supercenter wouldn’t fit. Overseas, the streamlining effort includes the closing of 60 money-losing stores in Brazil, a country where Wal-Mart has struggled.
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USA retailing giant Walmart announced Friday it is shuttering 269 stores inside and outside the United States, with Latin America the hardest-hit foreign market.
Also covered in the closures are 23 Neighborhood Markets, 12 supercenters, seven stores in Puerto Rico, six discount stores and four Sam’s Clubs.
Actively managing our portfolio of assets is essential to maintaining a healthy business, said Doug McMillon, president and CEO, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images The closings will effect 10,000 American workers, and Walmart said they hoped to find the employees new positions in nearby company locations. Macy’s said this month that it will shutter another 36 stores early this year, and Finish Line said that it would close 150 stores by 2020.
The Arkansas-based retailer said it would still open 142 to 165 stores in the United States in the year ending in January 2017. At the time the company said that next fiscal year’s profits could fall by as much as 12% because of investments in e-commerce, wage increases and store improvements. The people, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a significant number of the closures were of smaller-format stores.
Wal-Mart has Lehigh Valley area stores in Pohatcong Township, Lower Nazareth Township, Bethlehem Township, Pennsylvania; Hackettstown, Lower Macungie Township, the Clinton area, Readington Township and Whitehall Township.
Of U.S. locations being closed, more than 95 percent are within an average of 10 miles of another Walmart. The firm reports its fourth quarter earnings and full year results on February 18.
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Wal-Mart shares traded down about 2% early Friday, at $61.79 in a 52-week range of $56.30 to $89.26.
