The biggest retailer in the United States is making changes to its structure of outlets across the nation.
Walmart closed 23 different stores in 2023, according to the Daily Mail.
The closures affected some of the corporation’s under-performing locations.
Eight of the 23 shuttered stores were in Illinois.
Stores in the city of Chicago were especially affected, with four shutting down in that city alone, according to a statement from a company spokesperson.
“The simplest explanation is that collectively our Chicago stores have not been profitable since we opened the first one nearly 17 years ago,” the statement said.
‘These stores lose tens of millions of dollars a year, and their annual losses nearly doubled in just the last five years.”
Walmart 4626 W Diversey closed#Chicago pic.twitter.com/X9xpTSUtEI
— (@Chicago_Scanner) June 3, 2020
Does Walmart hurt small, local businesses?
Retail theft and petty crime have deterred large retailers from the troubled city — with the effect of creating urban food deserts, according to news sources.
Grocers have proven so scarce in the heavily progressive city that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has proposed opening city-run grocery stores to ameliorate food insecurity, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Chicago mayor proposes city-owned grocery stores as Walmart, Whole Foods exits leave ‘food deserts’ https://t.co/qnbn9yz8gc pic.twitter.com/sl35BGDYom
— New York Post (@nypost) September 18, 2023
The mayor even took aim at the chain directly in a statement blasting Chicago closures before assuming office.
Chicago Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson with a statement on Wal-Mart closing four stores pic.twitter.com/jERA4YDeiZ
— Gregory Royal Pratt (@royalpratt) April 11, 2023
The other shuttered locations were situated in Indiana, Hawaii, Washington, Minnesota, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Florida, Texas, Washington, D.C., Kansas, Oregon, California, Georgia and Connecticut. They included 12 Walmart Supercenters, seven Neighborhood Markets and four Walmart discount stores.
The store additionally sold off 79 outlets of its subsidiary Moosejaw and Bonobos chains.
The closures don’t portray a full picture of Walmart’s generally bright business prospects, however.
The company is planning to open more than 150 stores in the next five years and remodel 650 sites in 2024, according to an announcement last month.
The retailer reported increases to its revenues of 6 percent — to $173 billion — in the final quarter of 2023.
