HOUSTON – Walmart on Friday released a list of 269 stores around the world that will close and two are located in Houston.
The local stores facing closure are in Willowbrook at 7075 FM 1960 (Supercenter) and Spring Branch at 2740 Gessner (Neighborhood Market). Both will close Jan. 28.
Elsewhere in Texas, stores will also close in Bryan, Dallas, Frisco, Brownsville and Austin.
The company says the closures are a strategic move to focus more on its supercenters and e-commerce business.
The closures include a total of 154 U.S. locations, encompassing Walmart's entire fleet of 102 'Express' format stores, its smallest stores that have been in pilot testing since 2011. Some supercenters, Sam's Club locations and Neighborhood Markets will also close, plus 115 stores in Latin American markets. The closures were decided based on financial performance and how well the locations fit with Walmart's broader strategy, says Greg Hitt, a company spokesman.
Walmart has been working aggressively to grow its e-commerce presence and digital services, plus upgrade stores and provide shoppers with a more pleasant experience. In that vein, the company has also been making a big push to increase wages and provide more training to employees, an effort that's costing more than $1 billion.
The store closures, which represent less than 1% of global revenue from Walmart's nearly 11,600 stores worldwide, will allow the retailer to step up its digital and in-store initiatives, Hitt says.
(USA TODAY contributed to this story.)
