In the same announcement, the company said it is planning to open 300 more stores globally next year. Now, Wal-Mart officials said, they will “focus on strengthening Supercenters, optimizing Neighborhood Markets, growing the e-commerce business and expanding pickup services for customers”.
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The store closures will start at the end of the month.
Walmart, which will announce the stores to close midday on Friday, said the closures would represent less than 1 percent of its global square footage and revenue. He said he was assured the company will try to absorb the 24 employees at the Liberty Walmart Express into nearby stores.
Walmart’s pullback on Express stores comes as a key rival, Target, is looking to expand its own fleet of small-format stores, which it recently has been opening in dense urban areas and college towns as a way to capture a different kind of shopper than the ones that frequent its suburban big boxes.
“It is more important now than ever that we evaluate our portfolio”, said Walmart CEO Doug McMillon.
Walmart is also closing 23 neighborhood markets, 12 Supercenters, seven stores in Puerto Rico, six discount centers and four Sam’s Clubs. The Arkansas-based retail giant is also closing 60 stores in Brazil, where the company has struggled to compete with more established supermarket chains and has suffered from declining profit margins.
The financial impact of the closures is expected to be 20 cents to 22 cents per diluted earnings per share from continuing operations with about 19 cents to 20 cents expected to affect the current fourth quarter. “Closing stores is never an easy decision, but it is necessary to keep the company strong and positioned for the future”.
The company’s shares fell 2.6 percent to $61.39.
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More than 95 percent of the stores to be closed in the US are near another Wal-Mart, including all the Wisconsin locations. “Where that isn’t possible, the company will provide 60 days of pay and, if eligible, severance, as well as resume and interview skills training”.
