It's a Walmart Whirlwind So Far in 2016

Walmart dropped a bomb earlier this year when the company announced that it is closing all of its 102 Walmart Express stores. The Walmart Express concept, which was much smaller than the retailer’s traditional stores, averaging about 12,000 square feet, was intended to compete with convenience, drug and dollar stores that have edged more and more into the grocery business over the last decade.

Critics say the concept, launched in 2014, didn’t work largely because Walmart placed the Express concept in rural areas, mainly in the South and Midwest, in close proximity to its existing Supercenters. The problem is, those areas are where convenience and dollar stores generally perform the strongest. Some argue that the plan would have worked better if Walmart had placed the Express units in urban areas, where it does not yet have a very dominant foothold, and would cater to an audience of many underserved customers.