Wal-Mart headquarters announced today that the company will close a total of 269 stores, of which 154 are locations in the U.S., including the company???s 102 smallest format stores, Walmart Express, which had been in pilot since 2011.
Wal-Mart says closing the smallest of its stores will allow it to focus on strengthening Supercenters, optimizing Neighborhood Markets, growing the e-commerce business and expanding Pickup services for customers. But the retailer is also abandoning 23 Neighborhood Markets, 12 Supercenters, 7 stores in Puerto Rico, six discount centers, and four Sam???s Clubs.
???It???s important to remember that we???ll open well more than 300 stores around the world next year,??? says CEO Doug (Million) McMillon. ??? So we are committed to growing, but we are being disciplined about it.??? Wal-Mart intends to open 50 to 60 Supercenters in the U.S.—but that pales to its own majestic sprawl level of 350 stores per year in the mid 1980s.
The bad news: 16,000 workers around the Wal-Mart empire will lose their jobs, about 10,000 of them in the U.S.
???The decision to close stores is difficult and we care about the associates who will be impacted,??? McMillon said. ??? We are supporting those impacted with extra pay and support, and we will take all appropriate steps to ensure they are treated well.???
Store are being closed in 16 states. With the exception of 2 stores in Chicago, all the units closing are in the south or Midwest.
http://news.walmart.com/news-archive/2016/01/15/walmart-continues-sharpened-focus-on-portfolio-management
Here’s the release the company issued today. Take a look at the headline. It’s not about working losing their jobs. It’s about the company “sharpening is focus on portfolio management.”
These workers losing their family support is just “portfolio management.”
http://news.walmart.com/news-archive/2016/01/15/walmart-continues-sharpened-focus-on-portfolio-management
Wal-Mart headquarters announced today that the company will close a total of 269 stores, of which 154 are locations in the U.S., including the company???s 102 smallest format stores, Walmart Express, which had been in pilot since 2011.
