Walmart observations

[ClownLoach]

I'm sure that they want to close another wave of stores. They haven't done a significant wave of closures in at least 4 years?

Also I wonder if they would start closing stores only to reopen as Sam's Club later? Obviously this would be in better neighborhoods. They are finishing up the chain wide remodels/refresh projects and could focus their energy on new stores again. The contrast between Walmart and Sam's has never been bigger. The PNW and San Diego could open up to some of these stores with all of the problems that will erupt if this Kroger-Albertsons merger goes through. This might be their chance to break into "Costco Country."

[storewanderer]

I'm sure that they want to close another wave of stores. They haven't done a significant wave of closures in at least 4 years?

Also I wonder if they would start closing stores only to reopen as Sam's Club later? Obviously this would be in better neighborhoods. They are finishing up the chain wide remodels/refresh projects and could focus their energy on new stores again. The contrast between Walmart and Sam's has never been bigger. The PNW and San Diego could open up to some of these stores with all of the problems that will erupt if this Kroger-Albertsons merger goes through. This might be their chance to break into "Costco Country."

I wonder if they could try a format that is part Sam's Club and part Wal Mart pick up (with orders basically handled at another location and brought there). Wal Mart pick up has captured many upper middle class customers who previously did not shop at Wal Mart. One issue I am hearing lately is if there is one issue with pick up and they decide they have to enter the store for any reason (like to go to customer service, or replace a canceled item) the entire experience is ruined for them and they may not do even another pick up again. Wal Mart's in store experience is THAT bad now.

I still am not convinced they would be opposed to spinning Sam's off to private equity if they could figure out a way to get someone to pay them enough for it. Based on recent performance at Sam's, this may be the time to do that again if they really do want to be rid of Sam's...

I'm not sure we will see Sam's in the PNW again though. It would be very difficult for them to return after they left once.

[arizonaguy]

I'm sure that they want to close another wave of stores. They haven't done a significant wave of closures in at least 4 years?

Also I wonder if they would start closing stores only to reopen as Sam's Club later? Obviously this would be in better neighborhoods. They are finishing up the chain wide remodels/refresh projects and could focus their energy on new stores again. The contrast between Walmart and Sam's has never been bigger. The PNW and San Diego could open up to some of these stores with all of the problems that will erupt if this Kroger-Albertsons merger goes through. This might be their chance to break into "Costco Country."

I don't actually think they want to close another wave of stores. I'm not even sure if there is actually going to be any material change to their store closing or pricing strategy. They've been closing stores due to theft issues for years and within the last 5 - 6 years store closures in Oakland, Minneapolis, the Cleveland area, Cincinnati, Louisville, the Dallas area, etc. have all closed due to theft but it has been masked as "performance." Walmart is simply saying the quiet part out loud with hopes of getting more buy in from local authorities (police, prosecutors, city/county/state governments) to actually do something about retail theft.

I do think Sam's Club might be primed for expansion again and there were a few locations in their 63 closure list that they probably would have second thoughts about closing if they were to do it again. They had a location in Scottsdale, AZ across the street from one of Costco's highest preforming stores that is now an At Home. If they would've been more patient with this store and rolled out their newer prototype (that they are rolling out to other stores in the area) they might have been able to salvage this store. The same is true with a former store in Chandler, AZ.

The issue is I believe that Walmart has diverted a significant amount of their capital expenditure budget in recent years to online efforts. It might change in a few years but Walmart seems to be committed in the short term to growing online versus brick and mortar.

[arizonaguy]

I'm sure that they want to close another wave of stores. They haven't done a significant wave of closures in at least 4 years?

Also I wonder if they would start closing stores only to reopen as Sam's Club later? Obviously this would be in better neighborhoods. They are finishing up the chain wide remodels/refresh projects and could focus their energy on new stores again. The contrast between Walmart and Sam's has never been bigger. The PNW and San Diego could open up to some of these stores with all of the problems that will erupt if this Kroger-Albertsons merger goes through. This might be their chance to break into "Costco Country."

I wonder if they could try a format that is part Sam's Club and part Wal Mart pick up (with orders basically handled at another location and brought there). Wal Mart pick up has captured many upper middle class customers who previously did not shop at Wal Mart. One issue I am hearing lately is if there is one issue with pick up and they decide they have to enter the store for any reason (like to go to customer service, or replace a canceled item) the entire experience is ruined for them and they may not do even another pick up again. Wal Mart's in store experience is THAT bad now.

I still am not convinced they would be opposed to spinning Sam's off to private equity if they could figure out a way to get someone to pay them enough for it. Based on recent performance at Sam's, this may be the time to do that again if they really do want to be rid of Sam's...

I'm not sure we will see Sam's in the PNW again though. It would be very difficult for them to return after they left once.

I'm not sure Sam's is a drain on Walmart's resources and I'm not sure an independent Sam's would be a successful chain. A spinoff of Sam's would probably lead to either a merger with BJ's or a chainwide collapse with Costco and BJ's picking up the scraps within 5 years. Sam's is too integrated with Walmart in terms of HR, distribution, vendor purchasing, etc. that it would cost too much to make it an independent entity to make it profitable.

[Alpha8472]

I agree that Walmart wants local cities and counties to help them fight retail theft. Many California counties do not prosecute small thefts. They don't even prosecute thefts over $900 dollars. The courts need to crack down on these criminals and stop letting them go.

I was on a jury and the prosecuter obviously did not care. The prosecuter practically let the criminal go free rather than go out of their way to convict.

The police need to respond and arrest these criminals and the courts need to punish these criminals otherwise many stores are going to simply close down and leave.

Counties, cities, even entire states have laws that let criminals go for theft. This is creating a crime wave that is ruining quality of life for all people living and shopping in the area.

[veteran+]

That has been debunked.

$950. and above is prosecuted as a felony.

Below that is prosecuted as a misdemeanor.

Police do not show up for many complicated reasons and companies do not file charges for a host of reasons as well.

[Alpha8472]

The problem is that the police don't show up for theft calls. They are understaffed. Many thefts that are over $950 get let go with plea deals or get dismissed for many reasons. Stores don't have enough staff to catch criminals and stores have policies that prevent employees from blocking criminals from leaving.

It is a mess. However, it got worse after 2014 when the law passed raising the felony theft $950. Before 2014, the police did show up and arrested people. Back then the police did their job and got criminals off the street. After the new law, the police gave up.

It is very different in Arizona where the police still show up for small value thefts and criminals get prosecuted. Theft is much less in Arizona and the police are very responsive.

[storewanderer]

That has been debunked.

$950. and above is prosecuted as a felony.

Below that is prosecuted as a misdemeanor.

Police do not show up for many complicated reasons and companies do not file charges for a host of reasons as well.

If the police do not show up then that is an issue the stores need to take up with the jurisdictions. If the police chief has been TOLD by whoever controls them (city mayor or city manager) to not have their officers show up for these small thefts and focus on "bigger crimes" when who's fault is it that the police didn't show up? That basically means they need to increase the police budget so they can handle both the "bigger crimes" and the calls from the retailers.

It is well documented Wal Mart is a very heavy user of police services and there has been a lot of criticism in the past that Wal Mart deliberately utilizes police services (public dollars) to handle security related issues in their stores that the stores should be handling on their own. The counter argument is that Wal Mart has so much traffic that it is going to have more issues...

But if we are looking at San Francisco and what is happening there, there is no Wal Mart in that town. So the problems at those retailers are either a result of an unworkable theft law (this $950 thing), an underfunded police force, or retailers that do not have proper security processes in place. I am sure there is a lot of blame to go around. But the net result of stores closing is the net result... and that is not a good outcome for anyone.

[ClownLoach]

That has been debunked.

$950. and above is prosecuted as a felony.

Below that is prosecuted as a misdemeanor.

Police do not show up for many complicated reasons and companies do not file charges for a host of reasons as well.

I can give you multiple examples of losses across my district well over $950 where either the PD literally refused to show up and pick up the shoplifter our LP had in custody, and also multiple examples where they were arrested but the DA did not pursue charges and they were immediately released. My local PD has showcased multiple examples where they pick up a shoplifting crew for felony level theft in the morning at Target and literally arrest the same people the same night at the same store. They are not prosecuting felony shoplifting, and I'm in a county that is more aggressive about criminal prosecution than LA or SF. They say there are shortages of judges, court clerks, etc. so there is literally no prosecution. As long as the criminals don't mind the strip search at the prison turnstile IF they were actually caught then there is no other penalty.

[storewanderer]

The court system has slowly been trying to recover from COVID, being closed, remote work, and other intermittent closures since reopening. Everything in the court system is backlogged at this point. This is not a problem specific to any specific state or region. Everything takes twice as long as it took before COVID to work its way through the system. They say there are shortages of clerks, judges, etc., and that may be true, but the bigger issue is everything is just moving much more slowly than it used to.