The Walmart stores in Edgewood, Leonard and Whitewright will be closing on Jan. 28. Those locations are among the 269 stores worldwide, including 154 in the United States , that the world's largest retailer announced today will close. In Texas, 29 Walmart stores will close.
Walmart announced that it will attempt to place laid-off workers at nearby locations. The corporation estimated that 95 percent of the closing stores in the U.S. are within a 10-mile average distance of another Walmart store. Walmart also said it would provide 60 days of severance pay for eligible workers who are not placed at another store.
Most of the closures in the U.S. are locations of the chain's smallest store format, Walmart Express. The Edgewood store at 504 W. Pine St., the Leonard store at 420 S. U.S. Hwy. 69 and the Whitewright store at 301 S. U.S. Hwy. 69 are among the 102 Walmart Express locations set to be shuttered later this month.
Other closings in North Texas and East Texas include Walmart Express stores in Dekalb, Diana, Frankston, Godley, Grandview, Hughes Springs, Italy, Kemp, Lone Star, Maud, Naples and Palmer. Elsewhere around the region, Walmart Neighborhood Market locations in Dallas, Frisco and Southlake will also close.
Neighborhood Market follows a grocery store model, while Express stores are a scaled-down version of a standard Walmart store. The move also included closure of some of the chain's flagship store model, as well as some Walmart Supercenters and Walmart Amigo stores in Puerto Rico.
Globally, the restructuring will affect 16,000 workers, including close to 10,000 in the U.S. The number of workers employed at the Edgewood, Leonard and Whitewright stores was not immediately available.
The corporation said the closures accounted for less than 1 percent of its global square footage and revenue. Chief Executive Officer Doug McMillon has recently announced plans to shut underperforming stores.
“Closing stores is never an easy decision, but it is necessary to keep the company strong and positioned for the future," McMillon said in a release.
Globally, Walmart said it was closing 115 stores in Latin American countries. Walmart, based in Arkansas, has about 4,500 stores in the U.S. and about 6,000 stores in other countries.
