Walmart 2023 Closings

[storewanderer]

The DC Store is a disaster. Undersized, under assorted, ton of stuff locked up. It has a parking garage and you can imagine how that parking garage is maintained. Also the only way into the store from the garage seemed to be an elevator (I hate elevators). This is probably the only Wal Mart that you have to get a parking validation.

Closing stores like that DC Store probably helps Wal Mart's image.

[babs]

The DC Store is a disaster. Undersized, under assorted, ton of stuff locked up. It has a parking garage and you can imagine how that parking garage is maintained. Also the only way into the store from the garage seemed to be an elevator (I hate elevators). This is probably the only Wal Mart that you have to get a parking validation.

Closing stores like that DC Store probably helps Wal Mart's image.

Sounds a lot like the downtown Honolulu store.

[storewanderer]

The DC Store is a disaster. Undersized, under assorted, ton of stuff locked up. It has a parking garage and you can imagine how that parking garage is maintained. Also the only way into the store from the garage seemed to be an elevator (I hate elevators). This is probably the only Wal Mart that you have to get a parking validation.

Closing stores like that DC Store probably helps Wal Mart's image.

Sounds a lot like the downtown Honolulu store.

Wal Mart is out of its league with stores like these. Wal Mart at the end of the day best understands one format- the "Supercenter" where they get a giant piece of land in a non-dense area and put up a 125k-150k square foot building with a giant parking lot.

Even Target is having problems with these types of stores, but I think there are examples of success out there in Target of stores like these. Also Target's much smaller merchandise mix is a lot easier to handle in this type of a store (limited space, difficulty with deliveries, etc.).

[Super S]

Figured it's time to add some more closings:

Oregon

Portland, Oregon. 1123 N. Hayden Meadows Drive
Portland, Oregon. 4200 SE 82nd Avenue

District of Colombia

99 H St NW, Washington, DC 20001

This appears to be a 73,000 square foot neighborhood market / limited GM combination store. It appears shoplifting and COVID / WFH probably did this store in. As this store opened in 2013 it appears it could've been on a 10 year lease that Walmart is choosing to not renew.

We have been discussing the Portland closures on another thread. The Hayden Meadows store is a small store about 86K square feet and was something else prior to Walmart. It is a small store with a somewhat odd layout, and a small parking area. From what I understand, Walmart settled on this after not being able to build a typical store in the area (even though other big boxes exist nearby with typical stores, most notably a Lowe's right across the street, but also at Jantzen Beach where Home Depot and Target have locations. It almost seems as if the Hayden Meadows store was set up to fail from the start. This is by far my least favorite Walmart in the Portland area. The 82nd Ave. store is a typical store that was part of a redevelopment of Eastport Plaza, and was expanded into a Supercenter.

[veteran+]

Figured it's time to add some more closings:

Oregon

Portland, Oregon. 1123 N. Hayden Meadows Drive
Portland, Oregon. 4200 SE 82nd Avenue

District of Colombia

99 H St NW, Washington, DC 20001

This appears to be a 73,000 square foot neighborhood market / limited GM combination store. It appears shoplifting and COVID / WFH probably did this store in. As this store opened in 2013 it appears it could've been on a 10 year lease that Walmart is choosing to not renew.

We have been discussing the Portland closures on another thread. The Hayden Meadows store is a small store about 86K square feet and was something else prior to Walmart. It is a small store with a somewhat odd layout, and a small parking area. From what I understand, Walmart settled on this after not being able to build a typical store in the area (even though other big boxes exist nearby with typical stores, most notably a Lowe's right across the street, but also at Jantzen Beach where Home Depot and Target have locations. It almost seems as if the Hayden Meadows store was set up to fail from the start. This is by far my least favorite Walmart in the Portland area. The 82nd Ave. store is a typical store that was part of a redevelopment of Eastport Plaza, and was expanded into a Supercenter.

Many areas do not want a Walmart because of their business practices abroad and their employment practices - anti competive practices in the USA.

How these areas get away with allowing other big box stores to operate is interesting. I for one are happy they get away with it

[ClownLoach]

Figured it's time to add some more closings:

Oregon

Portland, Oregon. 1123 N. Hayden Meadows Drive
Portland, Oregon. 4200 SE 82nd Avenue

District of Colombia

99 H St NW, Washington, DC 20001

This appears to be a 73,000 square foot neighborhood market / limited GM combination store. It appears shoplifting and COVID / WFH probably did this store in. As this store opened in 2013 it appears it could've been on a 10 year lease that Walmart is choosing to not renew.

We have been discussing the Portland closures on another thread. The Hayden Meadows store is a small store about 86K square feet and was something else prior to Walmart. It is a small store with a somewhat odd layout, and a small parking area. From what I understand, Walmart settled on this after not being able to build a typical store in the area (even though other big boxes exist nearby with typical stores, most notably a Lowe's right across the street, but also at Jantzen Beach where Home Depot and Target have locations. It almost seems as if the Hayden Meadows store was set up to fail from the start. This is by far my least favorite Walmart in the Portland area. The 82nd Ave. store is a typical store that was part of a redevelopment of Eastport Plaza, and was expanded into a Supercenter.

Many areas do not want a Walmart because of their business practices abroad and their employment practices - anti competive practices in the USA.

How these areas get away with allowing other big box stores to operate is interesting. I for one are happy they get away with it

Portland makes it impossible for Walmart to open a store, yet they would embrace Target opening on the same piece of land and happily have thousands of Amazon delivery vans clogging traffic. They're all selling the same exact stuff. I really think that Fred Meyer entrenched themselves into local politics early and that helped to make it a hostile environment for Walmart. I don't think Fred Meyer considered Target to be a credible threat on the food side (they still aren't) so they were able to slide in and get a good chunk of the available retail space in Portland. But the result has become that Target in Portland area is starting to feel like the typical dangerous, high shrink Walmart stores in rough neighborhoods as they are the best place in town for these professional shoplifters to steal from.

[SamSpade]

There's one more closing I missed

6900 US Hwy 19 N, Pinellas Park, FL 33781

This is a Neighborhood Market within 1/2 mile of a supercenter. Based upon Google Street View this Neighborhood Market still has the pre-2008 Walmart signage and the original interior. The nearby supercenter looks to have been recently renovated.

Link to Off the Rack with some photos
https://www.facebook.com/groups/retailm ... 144440170/

[BillyGr]

Many areas do not want a Walmart because of their business practices abroad and their employment practices - anti competive practices in the USA.

How these areas get away with allowing other big box stores to operate is interesting. I for one are happy they get away with it

Are any of them situations where the other stores are older than any interest from Walmart in that area?
That might be one way - if the rules are changed to prohibit new stores over xyz size, it wouldn't prevent those already in existence from staying as they are.

[storewanderer]

Portland makes it impossible for Walmart to open a store, yet they would embrace Target opening on the same piece of land and happily have thousands of Amazon delivery vans clogging traffic. They're all selling the same exact stuff. I really think that Fred Meyer entrenched themselves into local politics early and that helped to make it a hostile environment for Walmart. I don't think Fred Meyer considered Target to be a credible threat on the food side (they still aren't) so they were able to slide in and get a good chunk of the available retail space in Portland. But the result has become that Target in Portland area is starting to feel like the typical dangerous, high shrink Walmart stores in rough neighborhoods as they are the best place in town for these professional shoplifters to steal from.

The joke is going to be on Target in these large cities where Wal Mart wasn't allowed to go or where Wal Mart has decided to up and close due to too many "issues."

Target had the best loss prevention in the business but it seems like since COVID hit they have been overtaken by the crime rings/theft rings. I suspect the normalizing of customers wearing face masks in stores in large cities and the amount of customers using reusable bags or no bags has made it much more difficult for loss prevention to identify and effectively watch potential shoplifters, and harder to document cases of "repeat visitors" since the mask makes it very difficult to positively ID the "repeat visitor." Every shoplifting event I witness involves either reusable bags or no bags. Before all these bag regulations it was rare to see customers with more than an item or two exit a store without bags, but now it is common for people to exit stores with a mountain of items in their arms that has been legitimately paid for. So in these places where a lot of legitimate customers also are using reusable bags or no bags it makes it difficult to do a positive detect on a shoplifter based on identifying them as "the one with no bags" until it is too late and they are gone.

At the end of the day many of these big city stores will end up closed or as pick up only locations. The locked up aisles don't work well and just inconvenience customers. The shoplifters collect the items and still leave without paying or go through self checkout and pretend to scan the items but don't.

[ClownLoach]

Portland makes it impossible for Walmart to open a store, yet they would embrace Target opening on the same piece of land and happily have thousands of Amazon delivery vans clogging traffic. They're all selling the same exact stuff. I really think that Fred Meyer entrenched themselves into local politics early and that helped to make it a hostile environment for Walmart. I don't think Fred Meyer considered Target to be a credible threat on the food side (they still aren't) so they were able to slide in and get a good chunk of the available retail space in Portland. But the result has become that Target in Portland area is starting to feel like the typical dangerous, high shrink Walmart stores in rough neighborhoods as they are the best place in town for these professional shoplifters to steal from.

The joke is going to be on Target in these large cities where Wal Mart wasn't allowed to go or where Wal Mart has decided to up and close due to too many "issues."

Target had the best loss prevention in the business but it seems like since COVID hit they have been overtaken by the crime rings/theft rings. I suspect the normalizing of customers wearing face masks in stores in large cities and the amount of customers using reusable bags or no bags has made it much more difficult for loss prevention to identify and effectively watch potential shoplifters, and harder to document cases of "repeat visitors" since the mask makes it very difficult to positively ID the "repeat visitor." Every shoplifting event I witness involves either reusable bags or no bags. Before all these bag regulations it was rare to see customers with more than an item or two exit a store without bags, but now it is common for people to exit stores with a mountain of items in their arms that has been legitimately paid for. So in these places where a lot of legitimate customers also are using reusable bags or no bags it makes it difficult to do a positive detect on a shoplifter based on identifying them as "the one with no bags" until it is too late and they are gone.

Once the national COVID emergency is officially declared over, I wonder if we will start to see retailers move to prohibit the wearing of face masks? Some smaller specialty retailers are already doing this; there are a few jewelry stores in LA that had enough and put locking gates up with camera systems which can only be opened from the inside. These stores declared they refuse to open if the customer is wearing a mask. This absolutely is driving up shoplifting. I noticed a brief period of reduction when the state banned the generic license plates (the ones that were just the manufacturer and dealer name/logo). Every single grab and run incident at all of my stores would involve a vehicle with these dealer plates. One of the best things California did was move to temporary numbered plates and order the Highway Patrol to pull over any vehicle with the generics. I would see video where sometimes the dealership named on the paper plate had gone out of business decades ago.