Walmart Closing Stores

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Walmart said it will close 269 stores worldwide this year, including many of its smallest stores, in an unprecedented move CEO Doug McMillon characterized as being more disciplined about growth.

Plans call for the company to close 154 locations in the U.S., including the company’s 102 smallest format stores, Walmart Express, which had been in pilot since 2011. Walmart said it will focus on strengthening its large format supercenters, optimizing Neighborhood Markets which average about 40,000-sq.-ft., growing the e-commerce business and expanding pickup services for customers. In terms of closures by format type, the company said the 154 U.S. locations consist of 23 Neighborhood Markets, 12 supercenters, seven stores in Puerto Rico, six discount centers and four Sam’s Clubs.

As reported in Retailing Today – Read the rest of the article

Macy’s Stores Closing and Cutting Jobs

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Macy’s said warm weather took a huge toll on holiday sales, which were much worse than expected, prompting the company to announce major cost-cutting moves.

During November and December, a period characterized by unseasonably warm weather, Macy’s said its same store sales declined 4.7%. Excluding the performance of leased departments, the comp decline was a more extreme 5.2%. Business conditions are not expected to improve with one month to go in the company’s fourth quarter period, with Macy’s forecasting comps for the full quarter will decline 4.7% compared to earlier guidance which called for a decline of 2% to 3%.

 

As reported in Retailing Today