Walmart is ending its Express concept and closing 269 stores

[alp227]

Source: Washington Post

Walmart said Friday it plans to shutter 269 stores this year, including all 102 of its small-format Express stores. The move reflects a shift in strategy in which the retailing giant will focus more on building up its e-commerce firepower and improving its massive supercenters and grocery-centric Neighborhood Market stores.

As part of this strategy, the company said it will not move forward with plans to build two new supercenters in the District — one that was planned for Skyland Town Center in Southeast Washington and the other at Capitol Gateway Marketplace in Northeast Washington.

“Our experience over the last three years operating our current stores in DC has given us a fuller view on building and operating stores in the District,” the company said in a statement. “This decision will not affect our three existing stores and we look forward to continue serving these customers in the future.”

A spokesman said the store closures would affect 16,000 jobs internationally, some 10,000 of those positions in the United States.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2016/01/15/walmart-is-ending-its-express-concept-and-closing-269-stores/

[hedgehog]

1. Uh-oh. Much as I distrust Walmart, this can't be good.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

17. It's probably not good if you are a brick and mortar retailer

There were signs of strength, but some unexpected weakness. Nonstore retailers like Amazon saw a 0.3% rise in sales. Nonstore sales rose 7.1% vs. a year earlier, their best gain since October 2014. Strong gains came food service and drinking places (0.8%), building material and garden stores like Home Depot (0.9%) and furniture stores (0.9%).

Electronics stores like Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) saw sales dip 0.2%, with less-than-expected demand for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone 6S sales.

Sales at general merchandise stores sank 1%, but the weakness wasn't concentrated in the department-store subgroup, which actually saw sales tick up 0.3%.

Wal-Mart said Friday it would close 154 U.S. locations and 115 international locations, with most of the closures smaller locations. That'll affect some 10,000 U.S. workers.

Read More At Investor's Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/economy/011516-790049-retail-sales-fall-amazon-solid-walmart-closes-stores.htm#ixzz3xLBXNPxB
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[appalachiablue]

2. Like Macy's and other retailers laying off workers now this is very bad for residents

and employees in DC and nationwide. The rapid bleeding of jobs from e-commerce and outsourcing is critical, my God.

[yeoman6987]

3. No good regardless of thoughts on Walmart

Let me explain. The express is gone....never saw one so probably no big deal. The big deal are the non super walmarts without grocery portion. These stores are the older stores in neighborhoods where they ran everyone else out of town or out of business. So now what are these neighborhoods going to do especially with loss of shopping and jobs? Seems ugly to me somehow.

[Kingofalldems]

5. Looks like conservatives upset by the ultimate failure of Walmart.

A Walmart America is exactly what they want.

[Populist_Prole]

12. You got it

It allows them to benefit both ways.

It fits into their supply-side "job creators" meme so they can claim it's the largest and most successful employer, as they tout "jobs" in the most macro way. Numbers, but shitty jobs they are.

It fits into their race-to-the-bottom economic view. The parent company gets fabulously wealthy, while it's cowering employees are too meek and desperate to coordinate efforts to oppose the plutocrats.

I know they hate Costco; It drives them nuts they are successful AND pay and treat their employees well.

[leveymg]

4. In other words, commitment to serving "fresh food deserts" was just a lot of PR BS

We even saw WalMart PR hacks here on DU seven years ago or so. Praise for Good corporate citizenship and underserved Inner-City commerce, and all that manure.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

14. Please pay a vist to the one at 99 H Street NW in DC.

I picked up some groceries there two days ago. I have never been to that store when it wasn't packed. The aisles are jammed with people with limited mobility. That is, there are lots of electric scooters in use at that store. Their users have a hard time getting anywhere, so having a Walmart nearby is a good thing for them.

A Giant opened up not long ago about four long blocks east of the Walmart. I've been to that Giant too, and I've never seen it empty.

[leveymg]

18. As it's (a few)blocks from Union Station and the Capitol, not exactly an "underserved neighborhood."

Last edited Fri Jan 15, 2016, 04:34 PM - Edit history (2)

Not in recent decades, anyway.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

21. H Street is 8 blocks from the Capitol and 4 blocks from Union Station.

You can't eat a train. Sure, there's a food court at Union Station, but it's all fast food. The Senate office buildings and the Supreme Court have cafeterias, but they don't sell food in the form of groceries.

The Walmart and the Giant on H Street, and a Harris Teeter a few blocks to the north, are the only grocery stores for blocks around. I think there's a Safeway a few blocks to the west, but I'd have to look that up.

You can buy fresh fruit and vegetables at those stores. They have bakeries. They have dairy departments. They have canned and packaged goods. Any other market nearby is strictly fast food - beef jerky and Slurpees.

Were it not for the grocery stores, there would be no place nearby to buy actual, nutritious food. Residents would have to walk a long way or make a bus ride to buy groceries. Now they do not have to do that, as they are being served by the nearby stores.

As I said, go see how crowded the Walmart is to see how the neighbors have taken to it. Having been to both the Giant and the Walmart, I am certain of their value to the neighborhood.

[leveymg]

22. If it weren't for Walmart, area residents would have to shop at nearby union grocery chains

where union-card holding grocery workers are paid more than a living wage rather than world wages.

What a catastrophe!

Your response reads like the press releases from seven or eight years ago that accompanied WalMart's penetration into DC.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

23. Then go on down there and give them a lift.

Be sure to bring a van; you'll need it to hold the electric scooters.

[leveymg]

24. Most of the people who live in downtown DC today wouldn't see fit to ride in my old car.

Take that from someone who lived inside the beltway for more than a quarter century until recently.

When I started living there, the H-Street area was distressed. Not after Mr. Smith and his colleagues tore down the old neighborhood and put up all those green-mirrored glass towers.

[underpants]

6. They just opened a Neighborhood Market 6 months ago here

Wow

[cstanleytech]

8. Ya and they just opened up another in my area but those arent what they are closing.

[underpants]

10. Oh okay. Thanks

[lark]

7. I'll applaud any Walmart failure.

They are a totally horrible company.

[cstanleytech]

9. You mean the people who own and operate them are. nt

[lark]

11. Yep, absolutely.

The sons and daughters of Sam are horrible people and have really messed up that company.

[littlewolf]

13. currently there are only 2 waltons on the board of directors.

[AngryOldDem]

32. That was my first reaction too, but I feel badly for the employees.

Get treated like shit, then lose your job -- it's the new American way.

Wal-mart, like Macy's, is the canary in the coal mine for traditional retailing.

[niyad]

15. what is their "express concept"?? something newer than their "neighborhood" centers?

[Algernon Moncrieff]

16. Here you go

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/walmart-opening-smaller-walmart-express-stores-us/story?id=16443932

My recollection is that they were designed to compete with Dollar General, which is spreading like topsy throughout the rural Midwest.

[niyad]

33. let's see-- have not set foot in wally world in nearly two decades, will not shop at

dollar general (thanks to their lawsuit against indigenous peoples). thank goodness I do have other options.

[Purveyor]

19. We are heading full-bore into a recession, no doubt about it and it will most likely guarantee a GOP

gov't come 2017.

Sorry but I'm out of lipstick for the 'pigs'...

[840high]

20. I'm starting to

agree with you.

[flygal]

26. I disagree

There are so many of these jobs needing to be filled all over. My hometown newspaper just ran a section on that. Restaurants, retail, fast food, hotels - all struggling to get positions filled. My friend works in an events center and they too can't fill all the shifts.

I think Walmart not succeeding may be due to their reputation and people not having the income to spend as much as they had planned. Yes, internet may be a bit of it, but those are not people usually spending like retail would like - on impulse items and the such.

So, hopefully, these people find better jobs quickly and other businesses get some of that walmart business.

[Pauldg47]

28. It's people like you who make it happen faster!!!

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

25. Urban format stores are a tremendous way to lose money

The costs are high and retailers have very little pricing power, people are too mobile. And parking is usually a problem.

[JI7]

27. you can't blame everything on ecommerce

Many of these companies turned their stores into shit with bad business practices.

So when people get other options they will take it.

If their stores were still better quality ecommerce could have helped them by getting people to regularly check out their site and make them want to come to the stores to see in person . And in the process buy other things also.

[forest444]

29. Make you wonder who makes these decisions at Wal-Mart.

Express stores work well in places like Europe, Buenos Aires, and New York because people who shop there usually walk to the store and don't expect a parking lot - just a nearby bus or subway stop if it's not within a short walking distance already.

In most places in the U.S., an adjacent -or at least, nearby- parking lot is pretty much the sine qua non of staying in business.

[restorefreedom]

31. there are many food deserts still in this country

if they want to focus on food, they have set up options that many smaller chains maybe don't have.