Walmart 2023 Closings

[SamSpade]

If you go to GMaps and look at the photos of this store, it feels unpleasant inside. Modern smart phones take pretty good photos so you can't blame the 'dark' feeling and low ceilings just on that. I realized after reading that it was a former Mervyn's, which explains some of the ceiling height issues. I didn't really see anything that looked like a veloport for carts or any second level photos either. It doesn't look like this store was setup for curbside pickup?

When Portland had Target on 2.5 levels, it never felt dark or weird because they did an excellent job of reusing an old downtown flagship department store by opening up the windows and properly utilizing available ceiling heights. Clearly the Walmarts shoved into these alternative sites do not have that same aesthetic.

This center also has a standard CA target it looks like and a Sprouts behind. Nearby there is a Stater Bros. and a Food4Less for food shoppers.

[Jeff]

The West Covina Store is an odd two level store. It is in a 2-level Mervyns and the upper level of a 2-level WT Grant store (probably added an additonal 20-30k sq ft, the lower level of Grants is vacant but most recently was a Pottery Barn outlet). So it's bigger than 80k sq ft. They did a smart thing and put the grocery and cleaning supplies on the lower level of the store and upstairs is everything else. It did have two entrances, one downstairs and one upstairs. This was the store I went to the most. It was always not as crowded as others but did have a good grocery section. I knew it was in trouble when the Aunt Annes pretzels closed and they never filled it. Target in this center is always busy and opened when they remodeled the former mall and demolished the former May Co store.

[arizonaguy]

The Towson, MD Walmart is closing on April 5.

https://foxbaltimore.com/news/local/wal ... erformance

This is another "mall" Walmart (the store is a former Montgomery Ward) that was 2 levels. There is also a Target in the same mall which is a typical 1990s build store (not a 2 level former mall anchor) as well as a Weis supermarket (former SuperFresh).

The Target and Weis seem better located within the center and a lot of online message boards say this store had a "theft" issue.

There seems to be a common theme here where Target will put their traditional store into a mall (by demolishing the former anchor and building a new traditional store) and Walmart will try to shoehorn their format into a former anchor. In these situations the Target seems to perform better and Walmart has been closing.

Walmart seemed to cheapen out during it's "expand at all costs" phase in the early 2000s and, in retrospect, should've demolished and rebuilt these stores (if possible).

[buckguy]

The Towson, MD Walmart is closing on April 5.

https://foxbaltimore.com/news/local/wal ... erformance

This is another "mall" Walmart (the store is a former Montgomery Ward) that was 2 levels. There is also a Target in the same mall which is a typical 1990s build store (not a 2 level former mall anchor) as well as a Weis supermarket (former SuperFresh).

The Target and Weis seem better located within the center and a lot of online message boards say this store had a "theft" issue.

There seems to be a common theme here where Target will put their traditional store into a mall (by demolishing the former anchor and building a new traditional store) and Walmart will try to shoehorn their format into a former anchor. In these situations the Target seems to perform better and Walmart has been closing.

Walmart seemed to cheapen out during it's "expand at all costs" phase in the early 2000s and, in retrospect, should've demolished and rebuilt these stores (if possible).

Towson is the center of gravity for upscale retail in Greater Baltimore. It also has a tremendous amount of retail competition and is an old area (large scale retail development began in the 50s) that has outlasted super-regional mall developments further out---the dead/redeveloped Owings Mills and Hunt Valley malls). I doubt that reshuffling the Walmart deck at this location would have helped. They simply don't do well in these kinds of locations. The Mayfield Heights, Ohio store they closed is in a less upscale retail environment (although upscale residential is nearby) but similar in having just about everything that competes with them in close proximity, in a long established retail area (again, the basic infrastructure began in the 50s), that outlasted a couple malls in close proximity.

Target has built two level stores in these kind of areas, where necessary--Rockville, MD and University Heights, OH come to mind--one an expansion of an existing strip, the other redevelopment of the site of a May Co. Department store. Configuration doesn't matter as much as whether the area is a good fit for the business. Walmart may be poor at executing locations that don't fit their standard model, but if the location is one that shows their weaknesses in other respects, I doubt that the configuration accounts for the failure.

[ClownLoach]

The Towson, MD Walmart is closing on April 5.

https://foxbaltimore.com/news/local/wal ... erformance

This is another "mall" Walmart (the store is a former Montgomery Ward) that was 2 levels. There is also a Target in the same mall which is a typical 1990s build store (not a 2 level former mall anchor) as well as a Weis supermarket (former SuperFresh).

The Target and Weis seem better located within the center and a lot of online message boards say this store had a "theft" issue.

There seems to be a common theme here where Target will put their traditional store into a mall (by demolishing the former anchor and building a new traditional store) and Walmart will try to shoehorn their format into a former anchor. In these situations the Target seems to perform better and Walmart has been closing.

Walmart seemed to cheapen out during it's "expand at all costs" phase in the early 2000s and, in retrospect, should've demolished and rebuilt these stores (if possible).

Towson is the center of gravity for upscale retail in Greater Baltimore. It also has a tremendous amount of retail competition and is an old area (large scale retail development began in the 50s) that has outlasted super-regional mall developments further out---the dead/redeveloped Owings Mills and Hunt Valley malls). I doubt that reshuffling the Walmart deck at this location would have helped. They simply don't do well in these kinds of locations. The Mayfield Heights, Ohio store they closed is in a less upscale retail environment (although upscale residential is nearby) but similar in having just about everything that competes with them in close proximity, in a long established retail area (again, the basic infrastructure began in the 50s), that outlasted a couple malls in close proximity.

Target has built two level stores in these kind of areas, where necessary--Rockville, MD and University Heights, OH come to mind--one an expansion of an existing strip, the other redevelopment of the site of a May Co. Department store. Configuration doesn't matter as much as whether the area is a good fit for the business. Walmart may be poor at executing locations that don't fit their standard model, but if the location is one that shows their weaknesses in other respects, I doubt that the configuration accounts for the failure.

Target does well with two story buildings because, quite frankly, they make them a royal pain in the rear to shop. Every one I have been in is bizarre. The ones I shopped the most were Lakewood, which was a relocation of a smaller old Target that reopened as a Walmart a few years later, and Westminster Mall which is a converted new build Macy's (that Macy's should have kept).

I think their first strategy has been to relocate existing stores into malls when it gives them the opportunity to upgrade the store to a larger format, and the mall is a better location than the original. This way they can be sure to move traffic over there in a sort of forced exodus. My impression is that all the incremental new multi level stores are less successful than relocations.

The layout is always intentionally scrambled so that it is impossible to get any shopping done without going to both floors. This ensures the customer is going to be forced to walk through the entire store and have maximum exposure to impulse buys, endcap deals, and so forth to get a full basket and high ticket.

For example, they will put household cleaning products on the first floor. Personal products like body wash, shaving etc. will wind up on the second floor. So what normally would be blocks next to each other are split between levels. Dawn dish soap level one, dial hand soap level two and so forth.

Mens and Women's clothing are also separated by floor. Home Decor will be split too, like bed and bath separated from the rest of home on opposite floors.

Food and Pharmacy also opposite levels.

Maybe these stores have changed in the last few years since I visited but I doubt it due to the high cost of moving these departments around.

I can't stand shopping these two story buildings, but I can understand why Target is more successful than Walmart. Walmart will make the ground floor basically the grocery store and the second floor the rest of the general merchandise. Makes it easy to bypass all the general merchandise and thus buy less overall. Combine the lower average sale, which probably underperforms to the rest of the chain, more difficult and labor intensive logistics, and higher rent these types of sites probably command, and it's a recipe for closure.

[buckguy]

The Towson, MD Walmart is closing on April 5.

https://foxbaltimore.com/news/local/wal ... erformance

This is another "mall" Walmart (the store is a former Montgomery Ward) that was 2 levels. There is also a Target in the same mall which is a typical 1990s build store (not a 2 level former mall anchor) as well as a Weis supermarket (former SuperFresh).

The Target and Weis seem better located within the center and a lot of online message boards say this store had a "theft" issue.

There seems to be a common theme here where Target will put their traditional store into a mall (by demolishing the former anchor and building a new traditional store) and Walmart will try to shoehorn their format into a former anchor. In these situations the Target seems to perform better and Walmart has been closing.

Walmart seemed to cheapen out during it's "expand at all costs" phase in the early 2000s and, in retrospect, should've demolished and rebuilt these stores (if possible).

Towson is the center of gravity for upscale retail in Greater Baltimore. It also has a tremendous amount of retail competition and is an old area (large scale retail development began in the 50s) that has outlasted super-regional mall developments further out---the dead/redeveloped Owings Mills and Hunt Valley malls). I doubt that reshuffling the Walmart deck at this location would have helped. They simply don't do well in these kinds of locations. The Mayfield Heights, Ohio store they closed is in a less upscale retail environment (although upscale residential is nearby) but similar in having just about everything that competes with them in close proximity, in a long established retail area (again, the basic infrastructure began in the 50s), that outlasted a couple malls in close proximity.

Target has built two level stores in these kind of areas, where necessary--Rockville, MD and University Heights, OH come to mind--one an expansion of an existing strip, the other redevelopment of the site of a May Co. Department store. Configuration doesn't matter as much as whether the area is a good fit for the business. Walmart may be poor at executing locations that don't fit their standard model, but if the location is one that shows their weaknesses in other respects, I doubt that the configuration accounts for the failure.

Target does well with two story buildings because, quite frankly, they make them a royal pain in the rear to shop. Every one I have been in is bizarre. The ones I shopped the most were Lakewood, which was a relocation of a smaller old Target that reopened as a Walmart a few years later, and Westminster Mall which is a converted new build Macy's (that Macy's should have kept).

I think their first strategy has been to relocate existing stores into malls when it gives them the opportunity to upgrade the store to a larger format, and the mall is a better location than the original. This way they can be sure to move traffic over there in a sort of forced exodus. My impression is that all the incremental new multi level stores are less successful than relocations.

The layout is always intentionally scrambled so that it is impossible to get any shopping done without going to both floors. This ensures the customer is going to be forced to walk through the entire store and have maximum exposure to impulse buys, endcap deals, and so forth to get a full basket and high ticket.

For example, they will put household cleaning products on the first floor. Personal products like body wash, shaving etc. will wind up on the second floor. So what normally would be blocks next to each other are split between levels. Dawn dish soap level one, dial hand soap level two and so forth.

Mens and Women's clothing are also separated by floor. Home Decor will be split too, like bed and bath separated from the rest of home on opposite floors.

Food and Pharmacy also opposite levels.

Maybe these stores have changed in the last few years since I visited but I doubt it due to the high cost of moving these departments around.

I can't stand shopping these two story buildings, but I can understand why Target is more successful than Walmart. Walmart will make the ground floor basically the grocery store and the second floor the rest of the general merchandise. Makes it easy to bypass all the general merchandise and thus buy less overall. Combine the lower average sale, which probably underperforms to the rest of the chain, more difficult and labor intensive logistics, and higher rent these types of sites probably command, and it's a recipe for closure.

I haven't experienced related things being spread out and there are 3 two level Targets I regularly visit (all in different places and each a different size), in addition to having been to others--the cleaning products, food, and H&B are usually on the first level, along with whatever food they have. The electronics, housewares and misc. hardlines are upstairs. The men's clothing and domestics seem to turn up on different floors and might be more a function of size than anything.

The mall stores around here vary--one in this area is a single story new build, the other is a very old former Montgomery Ward. I think they picked up a couple other Ward stores in the Baltimore area.

As for Walmart, when I moved to one of their territories after a long time of not being near their stores, I was struck that they had become "the store for people without other options"---the abbreviated selections in many of the departments, the disappearance of cheaper prices on most items, and the downhill slide in service (this was 20 years ago and its just gotten worse). Give people more choices, esp. in a relatively well-off area where people are less price-sensitive and Walmart doesn't necessarily do very well That sounds like the case in Towson..

[ClownLoach]

Towson is the center of gravity for upscale retail in Greater Baltimore. It also has a tremendous amount of retail competition and is an old area (large scale retail development began in the 50s) that has outlasted super-regional mall developments further out---the dead/redeveloped Owings Mills and Hunt Valley malls). I doubt that reshuffling the Walmart deck at this location would have helped. They simply don't do well in these kinds of locations. The Mayfield Heights, Ohio store they closed is in a less upscale retail environment (although upscale residential is nearby) but similar in having just about everything that competes with them in close proximity, in a long established retail area (again, the basic infrastructure began in the 50s), that outlasted a couple malls in close proximity.

Target has built two level stores in these kind of areas, where necessary--Rockville, MD and University Heights, OH come to mind--one an expansion of an existing strip, the other redevelopment of the site of a May Co. Department store. Configuration doesn't matter as much as whether the area is a good fit for the business. Walmart may be poor at executing locations that don't fit their standard model, but if the location is one that shows their weaknesses in other respects, I doubt that the configuration accounts for the failure.

Target does well with two story buildings because, quite frankly, they make them a royal pain in the rear to shop. Every one I have been in is bizarre. The ones I shopped the most were Lakewood, which was a relocation of a smaller old Target that reopened as a Walmart a few years later, and Westminster Mall which is a converted new build Macy's (that Macy's should have kept).

I think their first strategy has been to relocate existing stores into malls when it gives them the opportunity to upgrade the store to a larger format, and the mall is a better location than the original. This way they can be sure to move traffic over there in a sort of forced exodus. My impression is that all the incremental new multi level stores are less successful than relocations.

The layout is always intentionally scrambled so that it is impossible to get any shopping done without going to both floors. This ensures the customer is going to be forced to walk through the entire store and have maximum exposure to impulse buys, endcap deals, and so forth to get a full basket and high ticket.

For example, they will put household cleaning products on the first floor. Personal products like body wash, shaving etc. will wind up on the second floor. So what normally would be blocks next to each other are split between levels. Dawn dish soap level one, dial hand soap level two and so forth.

Mens and Women's clothing are also separated by floor. Home Decor will be split too, like bed and bath separated from the rest of home on opposite floors.

Food and Pharmacy also opposite levels.

Maybe these stores have changed in the last few years since I visited but I doubt it due to the high cost of moving these departments around.

I can't stand shopping these two story buildings, but I can understand why Target is more successful than Walmart. Walmart will make the ground floor basically the grocery store and the second floor the rest of the general merchandise. Makes it easy to bypass all the general merchandise and thus buy less overall. Combine the lower average sale, which probably underperforms to the rest of the chain, more difficult and labor intensive logistics, and higher rent these types of sites probably command, and it's a recipe for closure.

I haven't experienced related things being spread out and there are 3 two level Targets I regularly visit (all in different places and each a different size), in addition to having been to others--the cleaning products, food, and H&B are usually on the first level, along with whatever food they have. The electronics, housewares and misc. hardlines are upstairs. The men's clothing and domestics seem to turn up on different floors and might be more a function of size than anything.

The mall stores around here vary--one in this area is a single story new build, the other is a very old former Montgomery Ward. I think they picked up a couple other Ward stores in the Baltimore area.

As for Walmart, when I moved to one of their territories after a long time of not being near their stores, I was struck that they had become "the store for people without other options"---the abbreviated selections in many of the departments, the disappearance of cheaper prices on most items, and the downhill slide in service (this was 20 years ago and its just gotten worse). Give people more choices, esp. in a relatively well-off area where people are less price-sensitive and Walmart doesn't necessarily do very well That sounds like the case in Towson..

I pulled up Lakewood and Westminster just to check and they have obviously done some remodel work to make the layout less dysfunctional. Looks like seasonal moved to the opposite floor of foods to help move more personal care and healthcare products to same floor (maybe fixing the problem of dish soap, hand soap, and bath soap being in three completely different areas on two different floors). Probably not a good change for business as normally foods is next to seasonal in P-fresh formats allowing for say seasonal candy to be next to regular foods. Being on opposite floors will hurt the seasonal sales.

No matter what, it is obvious that it is very difficult to manage the layouts of a two or three story version of either Target or Walmart. But my experience has been that Target still feels much more "mixed up" and it was impossible to shop even a modest list without going up to that second floor. Walmart two story locations all seem to be truncated assortments and configured where most everyday buys are all on the first floor creating a glorified "Neighborhood market" format, and all the higher margin general merchandise on the second floor where it is easily avoided.

[storewanderer]

I haven't experienced related things being spread out and there are 3 two level Targets I regularly visit (all in different places and each a different size), in addition to having been to others--the cleaning products, food, and H&B are usually on the first level, along with whatever food they have. The electronics, housewares and misc. hardlines are upstairs. The men's clothing and domestics seem to turn up on different floors and might be more a function of size than anything.

The mall stores around here vary--one in this area is a single story new build, the other is a very old former Montgomery Ward. I think they picked up a couple other Ward stores in the Baltimore area.

As for Walmart, when I moved to one of their territories after a long time of not being near their stores, I was struck that they had become "the store for people without other options"---the abbreviated selections in many of the departments, the disappearance of cheaper prices on most items, and the downhill slide in service (this was 20 years ago and its just gotten worse). Give people more choices, esp. in a relatively well-off area where people are less price-sensitive and Walmart doesn't necessarily do very well That sounds like the case in Towson..

When did Wal Mart ever have good service? I have dealt with them since the early 90's and I've never found them to be a place that is known for service. I've heard stories of people in rural towns in the middle of the US with Wal Marts full of tenured employees who tell stories about the great service but the reality is most businesses in those towns are full of tenured employees and customers will tell stories about the great service all over town.

Many of their departments have larger selection now than ever with a wider range of prices/options (the "cheap" items to compete with things like Dollar Tree and Harbor Freight are still there- a row here and there, hidden almost- but so are a lot more mid priced items and some higher than mid priced items). Some of these smaller stores that cut space out to add more food in have this abbreviated mix you describe (same exact thing Target has done) but for the most part the full size Supercenters have a larger mix now than before and a wider range of price options in various categories notably the home/kitchen category. In hardlines categories the stuff they sell is the same stuff various higher priced competitors such as auto parts stores, office supply chains, hardware stores, sell. I actually keep waiting for Wal Mart to engage in a SKU cutting program. But I just don't see it. What I do see is constant resets of a lot of these home/kitchen type categories with many items clearanced out and new items brought in what feels like every few months.