Walmart is the most convenient shopping option for countless people across the U.S., as the big-box retailer has more than 5,000 locations spread across the country. With its famous low prices and vast inventory, some consumers rely heavily on the company to cover all their buying needs. But bad news is on the horizon for at least some of these shoppers. Walmart recently confirmed that it is closing stores in April, and the list is now growing. Read on to find out which locations the retailer is shuttering, and what they all have in common.
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Walmart said that it is closing another location this month.
iStockWalmart just confirmed that it is planning to close a store in Washington, the Puget Sound Business Journal reported on April 5. According to the newspaper, the retailer is shuttering its location at the Marketplace at Factoria in Bellevue, Washington, this month. The closure is planned for April 22.
"We are grateful to the customers who have given us the privilege of serving them at our Bellevue location on 41st Pl," Lauren Willis, a spokesperson for Walmart, said in a statement to the Business Journal. "We look forward to serving them at our other stores in the surrounding communities and on Walmart.com.”
The retailer had previously announced two other closures for the same day.
ShutterstockThe Bellevue closure is just the latest in a series of shutdowns Walmart has confirmed in the recent weeks. On March 22, the Louisville Courier Journal reported that the big-box retailer is planning to shutter a location in Louisville, Kentucky, near the Pleasure Ridge Park neighborhood in the southwest part of the city. Walmart then confirmed that it will also be closing a store in the Greater Cincinnati area in Forest Park, Ohio, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. These two locations will be permanently shuttered on April 22 as well, according to both newspapers.
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All of these locations are being closed for the same reason.
ShutterstockThe three soon-to-be-shuttered Walmart stores don't just have their closure date in common, however: All of the locations are getting axed over performance problems. Walmart confirmed that the Bellevue closure is due to poor financial performance, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal, and the Cincinnati Enquirer reported that the Forest Park location was being shuttered based on monetary performance as well.
Walmart spokesman Brian Little told the Louisville Courier Journal that the company decided to get rid of the Supercenter in southwest Louisville for "underperforming" also. "Our decision is based on several factors, including historic and current financial performance, and is in line with the threshold that guides our strategy to close underperforming locations," Little said.
But the company said it is not facing mass closures nationwide.
iStockThe decision to close three separate stores across the U.S. for poor performance may concern shoppers who worry that their local Walmart could be next on chopping block. QuerySprout, a consumer advocate company, did report earlier this year that the big-box retailer was planning to close some of its stores to focus more on e-commerce in 2022.
But when asked if the new Louisville closure was part of a larger nationwide series of closures, Little told the Louisville Courier Journal that it was not. According to the spokesman, the company does not make store closure decisions "lightly," and there is a "thorough review process" conducted before it makes such a call.
"These are never easy decisions, but actively managing our portfolio is essential to maintaining a healthy business," Little said. "This is done on a case-by-case basis and only after a careful and thorough review."
