As part of plans to close 269 stores globally, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) announced this morning a Neighborhood Market in Clever would shutter.
The year-old store at 414 N. Elm St. is slated to close Jan. 28, according to a news release.
The 12,000-square-foot store, which had been slated to open under the Express name, launched as a Neighborhood Market in
mid-January last year with 30 full- and part-time employees.
Three other southwest Missouri stores are
scheduled to close this month in Anderson, Noel and Seligman.
In the release, Wal-Mart said the announced store closures represent less than 1 percent of both its global square footage and revenue.
“Closing stores is never an easy decision, but it is necessary to keep the company strong and positioned for the future,” Wal-Mart President and CEO Doug McMillon said in the release. “It’s important to remember that we’ll open well more than 300 stores around the world next year. So we are committed to growing, but we are being disciplined about it.”
The closures include 154 stores in the U.S., 102 of which are Express stores, the company’s smallest concept that started as a pilot in 2011. The closures also include 23 Neighborhood Markets, 12 Supercenters, four Sam’s Clubs, six discount centers and seven stores in Puerto Rico. Some 95 percent of the stores closing in the U.S. are within 10 miles of another store, and employees would be placed in nearby locations.
In the company’s fiscal 2017, which starts Feb. 1, it plans to open up to 60 Supercenters, 95 Neighborhood Markets and 10 Sam’s Clubs, according to the release.
Wal-Mart’s roughly $2.6 million, 41,000-square-foot Neighbood Market at 444 W. Grand St., its sixth in Springfield, is
scheduled to open this spring.
