Walmart closing 269 stores in streamlining effort

We opened two new stores in MS in 2015 and are projected to open six more this year.

Walmart to close 269 stores: Walmart (WMT) will close 269 stores around the world in a strategic move to focus more on its supercenters and e-commerce business, the company said Friday.

Courtesy photo The Walmart Express in Pacolet is closing Sunday, roughly one year after it opened.

Shares of WalMart, which said the store closures represented less than 1 percent of its global square footage and revenue, fell 2.4 percent to $61.57.

The US retail giant Walmart Stores, Inc. on Friday announced plans to close 269 stores and lay off 16,000 employees, 6,000 of them outside the US.

The 11 stores shutting down in Arkansas, most in the western half of the state, are a Neighborhood Market in Maumelle and Wal-Mart Express locations in Charleston, Coal Hill, Damascus, Decatur, Gentry, Gravette, Mansfield, Mulberry, Prairie Grove and Van Buren.

Crescent City’s Walmart store apparently isn’t one of the more than 100 across the nation, including nine in California, targeted for closure.

A total of 10,000 Walmart associates will be impacted by the closings. 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. Wal-Mart said that more than 95 percent of the US employees losing their jobs are working at locations within 10 miles of other Wal-Mart stores and will be encouraged to apply for jobs at those stores.

In October, Walmart said an active review of their portfolio was underway to ensure assets were aligned with strategy.

Primarily the shutdowns in the US focused on smaller-format stores, including 102 Wal-Mart Express locations.

“Sadly, these latest store closings could very well be just the beginning”, Making Change at Wal-Mart spokesman Jessica Levin said.

But the company said it will offer those employees jobs elsewhere if available.

“They are from Amory or Smithville that drive through there headed to Tupelo”, Riley said. The 52 remaining closures will include a mixture of its Neighborhood Market stores, Supercenters and Sam’s Club outlets.

In an announcement, it said 154 of the terminations will happen in the USA, with 60 in Brazil and 55 in other Latin American nations.

In a statement, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said the company is “committed to growing, but we are being disciplined about it”. It also for the first time disclosed plans to open 200 to 240 stores overseas in the coming year.