Store closures are nothing new at this point, and plenty of big names in retail have made some serious cuts recently, including Bed Bath & Beyond, Walgreens, and Best Buy. For the most part, Walmart has been lucky: The big-box retailer's closures have been limited, with just a handful of locations permanently shuttered last spring, and a few stores closed temporarily for fires in the past few months. Now, Walmart is set to make several new closures in the coming weeks, and one of its store concepts will be abandoned completely. Read on to find out how the retailer is slashing its pickup and delivery services soon.
READ THIS NEXT: Walmart Is Closing Multiple Locations, Starting Feb. 17.
Walmart opened its first pickup-only store nearly a decade ago.
ShutterstockWalmart offers pickup services at most of its stores, and delivery is available from the comfort of your home—but did you know that there are some locations where these are the only options for shoppers?
The mega-retailer opened its first pickup-and-delivery-only location in 2014 in Bentonville, Arkansas, where Walmart is headquartered, Insider reported. This store, known as Walmart Pickup, operates more like a warehouse facility where 15,000 square feet of space stores "produce, meats and frozen foods and other consumables, like dryer sheets, paper towels and baby formula." Up to 19 customers at a time can park to pick up their products without ever needing to leave their car, the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.
"The feedback has been outstanding. People are saving an hour or more on their Saturday shopping," Walmart spokesman John Forrest Ales told the newspaper at the time. Three years later, in 2017, the retailer opened a second standalone grocery pickup location in Metairie, Louisiana. And in 2019, a third Walmart pickup-only store was rolled out in the Chicago-suburb of Lincolnwood, Illinois, according to Supermarket News.
Now, however, this unique store concept seems to be going away completely.
The retailer is set to close all of these locations.
ShutterstockThe Walmart Pickup in Metairie is listed as "permanently closed" on Google, with Insider reporting that this location was shut down in 2022. But while both the Bentonville and Lincolnwood locations remain open, they're on the way out, too. The last two remaining Walmart Pickup stores are now set to close as well.
Walmart spokeswoman Felicia McCranie told Insider that the company will be closing its pickup-and-delivery-only locations in Bentonville and Lincolnwood on Feb. 17.
"We are grateful to the customers who have given us the privilege of serving them at our Pickup and Delivery locations," McCranie told the news outlet. "We look forward to serving them at our other stores in the surrounding communities and on walmart.com."
Best Life reached out to Walmart to confirm that these two upcoming closures will bring an end to the Walmart Pickup concept entirely, but has not yet heard back.
Walmart is also closing other stores in Chicago.
jetcityimage / iStockWalmart said its decision to close the Lincolnwood Walmart store "was not made lightly," according to CBS 2 News. "As this is a pickup and delivery only location, we have taken what we learned from this location and made it part of how we operate Pick-up and Delivery from our surrounding stores," the retailer told the news outlet.
But Walmart's upcoming closures don't just include its last remaining Walmart Pickup locations. Alongside the Lincolnwood closure, Walmart is closing a total of three stores in the Chicago area soon. The other two are located in the city's suburbs of Homewood and Plainfield, and are expected to shut their doors for good by March 10, CBS 2 reported.
"We have nearly 5,000 stores across the U.S. and unfortunately some do not meet our financial expectations. While our underlying business is strong, these specific stores hasn't performed as well as we hoped," Walmart told the station. "There is no single cause for why a store closes and 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."
The retailer is shutting down stores in other areas as well.
Shutterstock / ZikGChicago is certainly taking a sizable hit, but Walmart closures will affect other areas. The retailer is also closing a location in the southeast region of Albuquerque soon, NBC-affiliate KOB reported. A Walmart spokesperson told the news outlet that the store on San Mateo Boulevard will close by March 10 as well.
After this Albuquerque store closes, the closest Walmart for many will be 30 minutes away by bus—causing concern among customers in the area. "It’s disappointing,” City Councilor Pat Davis told KOB. "People who need fresh food options in their neighborhood just aren’t going to be able to get it anymore."
And that's not all. A Walmart store on West Silver Spring Drive in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, will also be out-of-business by March 10, the Milwaukee Business Journal reported.
"It's infuriating that such a massive, resource-rich, and wealthy Fortune 100 enterprise like Walmart cannot keep such an important location open," Milwaukee Alderman Mark Chambers Jr. said in a statement to the newspaper. "The move not only negatively impacts shoppers, pharmacy customers and store workers, but I fear it will only add to the food desert issues that we are seeing in that area."
