Walmart Says It Will Close 7 Retail Stores, 2 in the Pacific Northwest

Typically, when you hear that a big box retailer is closing you can understand why. 

Take Toys R Us for example. While the very thought of Geoffrey the Giraffe stirs up all sorts of nostalgia in ‘90s kids, it was difficult for the brick-and-mortar store to compete with online giants like Amazon. Even as big as Toys R Us was, Amazon had an even bigger selection and could have those toys delivered directly to your door. 

Once booming home goods retailer, Bed, Bath and Beyond was heavily criticized for their cluttered stores and failure to embrace e-commerce at the right time. Their reluctance to embrace the internet allowed competitors like Wayfair to slide in and steal customers, especially a the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. While they managed to avoid bankruptcy, they're liquidating dozens of stores including locations in Boise, Twin Falls and Moscow.

But to hear that Walmart is closing stores?! That’s nearly unheard of. They’re a force to be reckoned with because of their low prices and wide selection of well…everything. It’s hard to picture an “underperforming” Walmart store, but apparently, they exist and eight of them will close in 2023. 

Business Insider reports that the closures will affect locations in five different states, including Idaho’s neighbor, Oregon. Both of those locations are in Portland. 

It’s not the first time the Arkansas-based big box retailer closed stores in the Pacific Northwest. Business Insider says they closed a location in Vancouver, Washington in 2019 and one in Bellevue, Washington last year.  

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What About Walmart Stores in Idaho?

Walmart operates 26 locations. At this time, it doesn’t look like any of those locations are marked for closure. We doubt that burger sales are an indication of how well or not well a Walmart store is doing, but McDonald’s closed their locations at four Idaho Walmarts in 2021. The location on Overland Road in Boise was one of those stores.