Walmart Closing 15 Stores In April, 3 In Illinois, 1 In Wisconsin

Even though Walmart has a history of closing a few "underperforming" stores every year, they're planning on a shutdown of 15 stores across the country this month (April, 2023) alone, and also pulling the plug on a multiple-year experiment of pick-up only locations.

Three of the store closures (including an Illinois pick-up only location) are here in the Land of Lincoln, while only one Wisconsin Walmart location is getting the axe from Walmart corporate headquarters.

Getty Images

Looking Back, Walmart Closed A "Handful" Of Their Stores Back In 2019, But In 2016, They Closed Up 150 Locations

You hear the word "underperforming" quite a bit in stories about Walmart deciding to shutter up certain stores, but there's another big problem Walmart has to deal with that goes beyond just a performance issue, according to The-Sun.com:

For Walmart specifically, historically high levels of theft sparked increased prices and total store shutdowns in particular areas, according to CEO Doug McMillon.
"Theft is an issue. It's higher than what it's historically been," McMillon said previously.
“If that’s not corrected over time, prices will be higher, and/or stores will close.”
In an attempt to curb the crime, the company has implemented a host of "anti-theft" devices, resulting in swift backlash from customers.

Getty Images

In Addition To The 15 Store Closings, Walmart Also Plans To Lay Off Hundreds Of Workers At Five E-Commerce Fulfillment Centers across the U.S.

15 store closings sounds like a lot, but when you consider that Walmart operates over 10,500 stores in nearly 20 countries, including around 4,500 stores throughout the United States, it's not a huge number.

However, for the people that store served, and for the people who worked there, it's probably a really big deal. You can tell from the photo below, taken a couple of years back in Pico Rivera, California when the Walmart there closed "temporarily."

Getty Images