Walmart to shut another two stores in weeks - is YOUR local shop affected?

Walmart is shutting another two stores next month - bringing the total closures  announced this year to eight.

Bosses said the two stores - in California and Wisconsin - were not making enough money. 

Walmart, which has already shut six in 2024, is among several major retailers to announce closures.

Earlier in April, dollar store 99 Cents Only said it will shutter ALL its 371 shops, while Best Buy closed ten in March.  Dollar Tree is closing 1,000, Macy's 150 - a third of its total - and drug store Rite Aid 77. 

Below, DailyMail.com lists all the eight Walmart closures for this year and the 23 from last year - and here is a map showing where they are in the US.

Walmart is announced eight store closures so far for 2024. Last year, it shut 23

Walmart is shutting this store at 40580 Albrae St, Freemont, California on May 24

Walmart  is shutting this store at 7025 W Main St, Milwaukee, Wisconsin on May 17

The eight closures for Walmart this year come after it shut 23 last year. 

California has already seen four Walmarts shut so far in 2024. The retailer shut two in the state on February 9. 

One of those in February was a Neighborhood Market in San Diego. Another a standard Walmart in El Cajon, 16 miles outside San Diego.

Eight closures in 2024 

California:

2121 Imperial Ave. in San Diego* - shut Feb 9

605 Fletcher Parkway in El Cajon - shut Feb 9

2753 E. Eastland Center Dr in West Covina - shut Mar 29

4080 Douglas Blvd in Granite Bay* - shut Apr 12

40580 Albrae St, Freemont, - shuts on May 24 

Maryland:

1238 Putty Hill Ave in Towson - shut Apr 5

Ohio:

3579 S. High St. in Columbus - shut Feb 16

Wisconsin 

7025 West Main Street, Milwaukee - shuts May 17

* Neighborhood Markets 

The retailer then shut a supercenter in West Covina - 20 miles east of Los Angeles - on March 29. 

A fourth to go in California was a Sacramento-area store on April 12.

Meanwhile, on February 16, a store on South High Street in Columbus Ohio was shut.

And a Walmart in a shopping center in Towson in Maryland closed on April 5, after 20 years.

The other two closures announced this week will happen over the next month.

Affecting 105 workers, a store in Milwaukee, Wisconcin has its final day on Friday, May 17. 

A week later, a superstore with 156 staff shuts in Freemont in the Bay Area of California.

The Freemont store was targeted by thieves in recent years. 

Walmart hopes staff can transfer to nearby stores that remain open. 

Supercentres, which employ about 300 people across around 182,000 square foot, are the standard big-box Walmart outlets that sell everything from groceries to electronics and home furnishings.

Walmart Neighborhood Markets - employing about 95 people and covering 38,000 square feet - are smaller. They focus on food, household supplies and normally have a pharmacy.

Overall last year, Walmart's total number of stores fell by 102, from 4,717 in January 2023 to 4,615 a year later. 

That's because - in addition to the 23 standard store closures - Walmart got rid of a combined 79 Moosejaw and Bonobos locations after selling the two retailers.

Despite the closures, Walmart has pledged to open 150 new stores over the next five years.

And it also said that for this year it would remodel 650 stores across 47 state. 

Last year, major US chains including Target, CVS, Macy's and Rite Aid were behind nearly 3,000 stores closures in 2023.

Walmart has also been in the news this week after DailyMail.com reported it is continuing to remove self-checkout machines from its stores.

In two stores - in Shrewsbury, Missouri, and Cleveland, Ohio - the retailer said it would replace kiosks with staffed checkout lanes which will 'give our associates the chance to provide more personalized and efficient service.'

In two stores, in Missouri and Ohio, Walmart will replace self-checkout machines entirely with 'traditional' staffed lanes, as pictured

In reality, many stores are ditching self-checkout kiosks because they are especially vulnerable to theft, an issue which retailers claim in recent years have been plaguing their businesses and forcing them to shut locations altogether.

'Most of the rollback of self-checkouts is due to retailer concerns over theft,' Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, told DailyMail.com.

The U-turn of the world's largest retailer may serve as a landmark moment in what appears to have been a failed self-checkout experiment that lasted years. 

Other Walmart news 

CLASS ACTION

 Are YOU eligible for a $500 payout from Walmart's $45 million class-action settlement?   

Walmart shoppers who bought bags of citrus fruit or packs of meat in recent years are being urged to check if they are eligible for a slice of a $45 million settlement.

The deadline for those to file a claim as part of a class-action lawsuit is fast-approaching on June 5, 2024.

Walmart is accused of overcharging customers as its machines inflated the product weight of meats and seafood. 

NEW CHECKOUT 

A checkout change is on the way at Sam's Club stores aimed at speeding up wait times for shoppers, the boss of its parent company Walmart has confirmed. 

The membership-based warehouse store - Walmart's version of Costco - will allow customers to scan and pay for groceries with an app on their phone and just walk straight out.  

'At Sam's Club US, we're rolling out new exit technology that enables our members to use scan and go to just walk out after completing their transaction on their phone,' Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said in an earnings call last week.