Free Republic

The last 12 months have not been kind to WalMart. When the world's largest retailer bowed to pressure to raise wages for its lowest-paid employees, the living wage crowd cheered. In short order, it became apparent that the reverberations from the $1.5 billion endeavor would spell trouble for the company. When a series of ill-fated efforts to squeeze the supply chain failed to plug the gap, the company resorted to store closures (or "plumbing" as WalMart calls it), job cuts in Bentonville, and reduced hours. Finally, in October, WalMart threw in the towel and cut guidance. Its shares plunged. Now,...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Wal-Mart is closing 269 stores, more than half of them in the U.S. and another big chunk in its challenging Brazilian market. The stores being shuttered account for a fraction of the company's 11,000 stores worldwide and less than 1 percent of its global revenue. More than 95 percent of the stores set to be closed in the U.S. are within 10 miles of another Wal-Mart. The Bentonville, Arkansas, company said it is working to ensure that workers are placed in nearby locations. The store closures will start at the end of the month.

Walmart will shutter more than 250 stores worldwide and exit its Walmart Express small-store format entirely as the company adjusts to stiff competition from its online nemesis, Amazon. Walmart said in a statement on Friday that it would close 269 stores globally, of which 154 would be in the United States. That is about 2 percent of Walmart's global footprint of 11,600 stores, and 3 percent of its 5,310 locations in the United States. Those stores are scheduled to close by the end of January. The company has been slow to pull out of a flat sales period after the...