I agree the plumbing thing just won’t hunt. It could be that they avoid the ongoing publicity of announcing a store closing and going through the usual 60 or so days of shutdown. A plumbing problem they just shut down and worry about moving out the inventory etc later. Its over and hopefully people forget about it. Store closings are bad for stock prices.
The Midland store was one of the top five Walmarts in the country.
So, if they’re going to close stores, why close one of their most profitable?