Walmart quietly shutters another three stores as the total closures for 2024 hits 11
Walmart has decided to close three more stores in the US, bringing the total number of failed locations this year to eleven.
The retail giant said these three stores – located in Georgia and Colorado – were underperforming financially.
The metro Atlanta area will lose one location in Marietta and one in Dunwoody on July 12, although Walmart emphasized in a statement that there are nine other stores in the area that customers can switch to.
The third Walmart to close was in Aurora, just east of Denver. On June 7, shoppers were served for the last time.
Below, DailyMail.com lists all 11 Walmart closures for this year and the 23 from last year – and here’s a map showing where they are in the US.
Walmart has so far announced 11 store closures through 2024. Last year it closed 23 stores.
Employees at all three stores will have the option to be transferred to alternate locations, Walmart announced.
Both Atlanta stores combined employed nearly 400 people, all of whom are eligible for transfer and will be paid through September 20. WSB TV reported.
Meanwhile, the Aurora store said it would move its 130 employees to a nearby location.
This comes after Walmart, which still has a huge footprint of 4,000 stores in the US, closed 23 locations last year.
Amid rising shoplifting and persistent inflation, however, the retail turmoil isn’t unique to Walmart, with dollar stores being hit the hardest.
In April, 99 Cents Only announced it would close all 371 locations in California, Texas, Arizona and Nevada.
And in the coming years, 1,000 Family Dollars and Dollar Trees will close for good.
This year, Walmart has closed the most in California. The state has seen four of its stores close so far in 2024. The retailer closed two on February 9.
One of these in February was a neighborhood market in San Diego. Another standard Walmart in El Cajon, 16 miles outside of San Diego.
The retailer then closed a supercenter in West Covina – thirty kilometers east of Los Angeles – on March 29.
A fourth store in California was a store in the Sacramento area on April 12.
Meanwhile, a store closed on South High Street in Columbus, Ohio on February 16.
And a Walmart in a shopping center in Towson, Maryland, closed on April 5, after 20 years.
This supercenter in Dunwoody, Georgia, employs 303 people and will close on July 12
This store in Marietta, Georgia, is the second Walmart to close in the Atlanta metro area. As a neighborhood market, it employs 92 people, far fewer than a typical Walmart supercenter
The store in Aurora, Colorado, closed on June 7, affecting 130 employees. This location was also a neighborhood market
Eleven closures in 2024
California:
2121 Imperial Ave in San Diego* – closed February 9
605 Fletcher Parkway in El Cajon – closed February 9
2753 E. Eastland Center Dr in West Covina – closed March 29
4080 Douglas Blvd in Granite Bay* – closed April 12
40580 Albrae St in Freemont, – closed on May 24
Maryland:
1238 Putty Hill Ave in Towson – closed April 5
Ohio:
3579 S. High St in Columbus – closed February 16
Wisconsin
7025 West Main St in Milwaukee – closed May 17
Georgia:
4725 Ashford Dunwoody Rd in Dunwoody – closing July 12
3101 Roswell Rd in Marietta* – closed July 12
Colorado:
10400 E Colfax Ave in Aurora* – closed June 7
* Neighborhood markets
A store in Milwaukee, Wisconsin affected 105 employees and had its last day on Friday, May 17.
A week later, a superstore with 156 employees closed in Freemont in California’s Bay Area.
The Freemont store has been targeted by thieves in recent years.
Supercenters, which employ about 300 people in about 180,000 square feet, are the standard large Walmart stores that sell everything from groceries to electronics and home furnishings.
Walmart Neighborhood Markets — which employs about 95 people and covers 38,000 square feet — is smaller. They focus on food, household items and normally have a pharmacy.
Over the past year and a half, Walmart’s total number of stores fell by 108, from 4,717 in January 2023 to 4,609 today.
That’s because Walmart — in addition to the 34 standard store closures since early 2023 — has sold a combined 79 Moosejaw and Bonobos locations following the sale of the two retailers.
Despite the closures, Walmart has pledged to open 150 new stores over the next five years.
And last year it also said it would remodel 650 stores in 47 states.
Last year, major US chains including Target, CVS, Macy’s and Rite Aid were responsible for nearly 3,000 store closures by 2023, all blaming declining in-person customers, fears of a recession and shoplifting.
To address the latter, retailers including Walmart are removing self-checkout machines as they have been shown to be vulnerable to theft.
Walmarts in Shrewsbury, Missouri, and Cleveland, Ohio, eliminated self-checkout lines entirely and replaced them with staffed aisles.
Even as Walmart numbers have shrunk over the past year and a half, the company’s shares recently hit an all-time high following a rosy first-quarter earnings report in May.
It cited 21 percent growth in e-commerce sales as one of the strongest indicators of positive performance in 2024.