Walmart Closures Will Not Affect Wyoming

Laramie's Walmart will not be affected by a spate of closures the company announced Friday.

Walmart will close 269 stores including 154 U.S. locations, affecting roughly 16,000 Walmart associates worldwide and about 10,000 in the U.S.

No closures will be made in Wyoming.

Walmart says in a press release it hopes to transfer associates from closing stores to nearby locations.  If a transfer is not possible, the company will provide 60 days of paid leave and severance for eligible employees.  The company hopes to help those associates find their next job opportunity through resume assistance and interview skills training.

The closures mark Walmart’s exit from its small-format Walmart Express pilot that began in 2011.  All 102 Walmart Express locations will close.

The company will opt instead to improve Supercenter and Neighborhood Market locations while strengthening their online business and offering greater pickup services for customers.

The closures include 23 Neighborhood Markets, 12 Supercenters, seven Puerto Rico locations, six discount centers, and four Sam’s Clubs.

Colorado will lose two Neighborhood Market stores by the end of January.  The Bowles Avenue location in Littleton will close Sunday, Jan. 17, and the Monaco Parkway location in Denver will shut its doors Jan. 28.

The company says these closures are a part of Walmart’s disciplined strategy of active portfolio management.  The company recently closed 60 stores in Brazil that were losing money and represented only five percent of sales in that market.  Walmart will close 55 more locations in other Latin American markets.

While Walmart prepares to close up shop in locations across the globe, it intends to open 50 to 60 Supercenters, 85 to 95 Neighborhood Markets and seven to 10 Sam’s Clubs in the U.S. over the course of fiscal year 2017 which begins Feb. 1.

Walmart also plans to open 200-240 stores worldwide in the coming year.

For the fiscal year that ended Jan. 30, 2015, Walmart’s net sales increased by 1.9%.  The company returned $7.2 billion in dividends and share repurchases to shareholders in that period.