Last month, the big box retail chain Walmart announced that it would be closing 269 stores worldwide. These closings include 154 stores in the United States.
A statement from Walmart said that reasons for the closings included the lack of success of it's small Walmart Express stores, stores in close proximity to other Walmart stores, and an increased demand in online shopping.
For Walmart, this move was taken to improve shares of the company, which has fallen nearly 30 percent in the past 12 months. Also, the company said it will instead focus on
"strengthening Supercenters, optimizing Neighborhood Markets, growing
the e-commerce business and expanding pickup services for customers."
Walmart will continue to "invest in ITS future," the company said, with
plans to open 50 to 60 supercenters and 85 to 95 neighborhood markets in
the U.S.
Even with all these store closings, it only represents less than 1 percent of Walmart's global square footage and revenue.
What these store closings mean for the people and communities they were in, is a different story. These store closings mean a loss of over 10,000 jobs and many people without a place to buy groceries within a 10 mile radius from their homes. Major real estate and developed land is now vacant, and not producing taxable revenues for the communities they are in.
Also, when these Walmart stores originally opened up, many small businesses and mom-and-pop stores went out of business. These smaller shops just couldn't compete with Walmart prices and the "Walmart brand". It is in my opinion, that this is the biggest negative effect out of the whole situation.
Now I must admit, that I am not, nor have I ever been a fan of Walmart. Before they opened the supercenters with produce, meats, bread, etc; I remember them having stale and expired off-brand Cheetos and potato chips. Even now, they have broken carts with "stuck" or squeaky wheels, 57 checkout lanes with only 3 open, and non existent customer service, in my opinion, rightly so (because of the low wages of employees).
But, let's leave that aside for now. It is my suggestion, that the closing of these stores provide an opportunity for entrepreneurs, small business owners, and the people of the communities that they were in. The closing of a Walmart opens the door for groceries stores, clothing shops, electronics stores, and many other small retail shops. Also, this also provides the opportunity for budding entrepreneurs to beat Walmart to the online demand. The increase of e-commerce businesses would provide competition and spread market share away from Walmart's e-commerce and pick up service.
It was small businesses that made the country and communities we live in great and I believe it's going to take the growth and increase of small businesses to make the places we live in great again!
