© www.usatoday.comThe last roundup.
US retail giant Walmart, the world's largest company by revenue, will close hundreds of stores around the world and layoff thousands of employees. The company announced Friday
it will close 269 stores across the globe, including 154 in the US. In all, 16,000 employees will lose their jobs by the store closings, about 10,000 of whom are in the US. Walmart is closing the stores to shift resources to Supercenters and smaller-format Neighborhood Market stores.
Walmart has more than 11,000 stores worldwide, including 4,655 stores in the US.
Internationally, Walmart is closing 115 stores, including 60 in Brazil. The remaining stores are primarily small, money-losing stores in other Latin American countries. "Closing stores is never an easy decision, but it is necessary to keep the company strong and positioned for the future," Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said in a statement.
Headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, Walmart
had a total revenue of $485 billion in 2014, according to the
Fortune magazine. It is also
the biggest private employer in the world with 2.2 million employees. According to labor rights groups, many Walmart employees earn close to the federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour.
A study in 2013 by Congress found
employees at a single Wisconsin Walmart receive about $1 million per year in public assistance. Millions of low-wage American workers in the retail and fast-food industry have protested in recent years for higher wages and the right to form labor unions.
Comment: What to do with the billions built on the backs of public-subsidized employees?
In the US, Wal-Mart is closing 102 Wal-Mart Express stores, the competition experiment to the growing dollar stores. (Well, the buck stops here for that experiment!) Also closing are 23 Neighborhood Markets, 12 supercenters, seven stores in Puerto Rico, six discount stores and four Sam's Clubs. It will, instead, open 50 to 60 supercenters, 85 to 95 Neighborhood Markets and 7 to 10 Sam's Clubs in the U.S. during the fiscal year that begins Feb. 1. Outside the U.S., Wal-Mart plans to open 200 to 240 stores.
At least the rich are keeping themselves busy. Will be interesting to see if a lot of the closures coincide in states that are upping minimum wage.
Argentina also has quite a bit of Walmart's but have not heard what the effect will be there.
Chile where I live, they operate under the name Lider (the company they bought out and now own 51%). Just because it is Walmart does not mean they are exempt from a country's regulations. There have been more than a couple of nationwide worker strikes with them quietly settling with workers till the next round. In that respect, they are no different than the other two or so native hypermarket conglomerates in Chile.
Another difference I note from the States (my origins), small mom and pop operators often sell at or cheaper than Walmart and continue to thrive due to locational convenience and habit among the locals.