Walmart Inc. has shut down 11 stores across the United States this year, resulting in approximately 80 layoffs. Earlier in 2024, Walmart closed 51 in-store Health Centers, citing an unsustainable business model, while continuing to operate nearly 4,600 pharmacies and 3,000 vision centers. This year’s closures include: five stores in California, one in Colorado, two in Georgia, one in Maryland, one in Ohio, and one in Wisconsin.
Walmart currently plans to build or convert over 150 large-format stores in the next five years, with two new locations already opened in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, and Atlanta. Despite the closures, the company maintains that its overall business remains strong, although some specific stores have not met expectations.
Walmart is revising its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies, influenced by activist Robby Starbuck’s campaign against corporate “wokeness.” Changes include enhanced product monitoring and a review of community event funding.
Starbuck stated, “Walmart is the single largest employer in the United States. Removing wokeness from Walmart has both downstream effects on suppliers and sets the tone for corporate America.”
Starbuck added, “Changing normal operating policy at a nearly $1 trillion company is a gargantuan feat that many have tried to achieve but no one until now has actually been able to get done.”
The company will discontinue the use of terms like “LatinX” and “DEI” in official communications, opting instead for “belonging.” Walmart has also ceased participation in the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index.
Walmart’s decision to pivot away from certain DEI initiatives comes amid public and political pressures regarding “woke” policies. Starbuck claims these changes could influence suppliers and set a precedent for other corporations.
Starbuck continued, “We’ve now changed policy at companies worth over $2 Trillion dollars, with many millions of employees who have better workplace environments as a result.”
Walmart stated, “We’ve been on a journey and know we aren’t perfect, but every decision comes from a place of wanting to foster a sense of belonging, to open doors to opportunities for all our associates, customers and suppliers and to be a Walmart for everyone.”
While Walmart asserted its commitment to fostering belonging among associates and customers, critics argued that rolling back DEI initiatives undermines inclusivity efforts.
CEO Doug McMillon said, “Every year we really focus on made in the USA, about two thirds of what we sell is either made, grown or assembled right here in the United States.”
McMillon added, “We have a program every summer called open call where we welcome in small suppliers and we welcome in people that have an idea, that are an entrepreneur, and they want to learn. So we’re going to continue to lean into ensuring that we provide the very best pathways for small businesses, our suppliers, to be successful here in the store.”