Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) announced on January 15 that it was closing 154 U.S. stores, and on Monday the 18, 127 stores that are set to close on January 28 slashed prices by 25%. On Friday, prices dropped again to 50% off.
Not everything is on the blowout sale shelves. Guns, ammo, fuel, prescription drugs, jewelry, alcohol, wireless plans, smartphones, tablets and lottery tickets are among the items for which consumers will have to pay full price.
Wal-Mart’s store closures include all 102 of its Walmart Express locations, 23 Neighborhood Markets, 12 Supercenters, six discount stores, four Sam’s Club stores, and seven stores in Puerto Rico. A full list of all stores that are closing is available at the end of the company’s January 15 press release.
CNNMoney cited Wal-Mart spokesman Randy Hargrove: “We’ve seen some strong interest from the public in the stores that are closing trying to take advantage of the discount.”
The store closures will cost approximately 10,000 U.S. workers their jobs, and another 6,000 jobs will be lost at the company’s international stores.
Wal-Mart estimated that the financial impact of the store closings will be $0.20 to $0.22 per share, with $0.19 to $0.20 expected to hit the fourth quarter of the current 2016 fiscal year. About 75% of the impact relates to U.S. closings and the remaining 25% involves Walmart International, with a large majority of the international impact relating to the closures in Brazil.
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