Walmart 2024 Closures

[Alpha8472]

One San Francisco Bay Area store is closing. Fremont is a very low crime suburb, but shoplifters targeted it because it was so quiet. The Walmart stores in rough areas are locked down with barbed wire and glass cabinets, so the shoplifters target the ones that are not prepared.

The store was the scene of an arson attack by shoplifters a while back. Arson alone is not enough to close it. This store had few customers and low sales.

https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/wal ... sing-down/

[ClownLoach]

One San Francisco Bay Area store is closing. Fremont is a very low crime suburb, but shoplifters targeted it because it was so quiet. The Walmart stores in rough areas are locked down with barbed wire and glass cabinets, so the shoplifters target the ones that are not prepared.

The store was the scene of an arson attack by shoplifters a while back. Arson alone is not enough to close it. This store had few customers and low sales.

https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/wal ... sing-down/

Is it true that there are only ten locations in the Bay Area once this closes?

This same problem is starting to creep into Orange County, normally mostly nice low crime areas. The criminals in LA running rampant are running out of places to rob and things to steal, so they are increasingly coming over the county line and my contacts tell me inventories in Orange County are coming back the worst shrink ever seen by several chains there. Seeing a lot more lock up cages, glass doors, guards and such in OC stores from many chains.

[storewanderer]

One San Francisco Bay Area store is closing. Fremont is a very low crime suburb, but shoplifters targeted it because it was so quiet. The Walmart stores in rough areas are locked down with barbed wire and glass cabinets, so the shoplifters target the ones that are not prepared.

The store was the scene of an arson attack by shoplifters a while back. Arson alone is not enough to close it. This store had few customers and low sales.

https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/wal ... sing-down/

Is it true that there are only ten locations in the Bay Area once this closes?

This same problem is starting to creep into Orange County, normally mostly nice low crime areas. The criminals in LA running rampant are running out of places to rob and things to steal, so they are increasingly coming over the county line and my contacts tell me inventories in Orange County are coming back the worst shrink ever seen by several chains there. Seeing a lot more lock up cages, glass doors, guards and such in OC stores from many chains.

This is happening in Reno as well. Groups from the bay area will drive to the (easy target) stores here and do mass theft. The retailers and police have started to try to fight back to an extent... the groups stay away for a while, so everyone forgets about them, but then they come back... it isn't an everyday thing.

But in general something is up in the bay area. When I go into CA, it is jam packed around Sacramento, I've never seen it more crowded there than it is now. SoCal same thing it is more crowded than ever. But the bay area... yes it is still crowded but it just doesn't seem as crowded as it was before COVID. I don't know what has happened there. People don't go out as much or a lot of people really have moved out of there... and I'm referring to the entire bay area- not just San Francisco, but the entire thing; San Jose area especially is not the same as it was before.

Wal Mart took locations they shouldn't have taken in the bay area and they are paying for it now with store closures/low performing stores. They were dead set on getting into an area that had heavily organized to not want them so they took bad locations. In these cases, the customers have not turned out to shop them... in other parts of CA the smaller/rural markets which had similar anti-Wal Mart organization drives but Wal Mart was able to eventually build the Supercenters it wanted in the visible locations they wanted they have done very well. I think the bay area will just be a market where Wal Mart is largely missing. This only makes it more difficult for customers who are looking for lower cost products, who will just leave and move to areas with lower costs including a wider array of retailers to shop at.

[Alpha8472]

There are only a small number of Walmart stores in the San Francisco Bay Area. The hate for Walmart is intense. People love Target, but shun Walmart.

There used to be many packed apartments with construction workers and day laborers. There were hotels maids, fast food workers, restaurant workers, etc.

COVID changed all that. The tourist industry of the San Francisco Bay Area used to have packed hotels, packed restaurants, packed retail stores in San Francisco. The streets were packed with tourists. The workers packed apartments all over the San Francisco and Oakland areas.

Now those tourist jobs, hotel maids, hotel workers, day laborers, mall workers, airport workers, restaurant workers are unemployed. People have fled the expensive Bay Area. There are empty apartments all over the Bay Area area.

The Walmart stores are doing dismal business. The Target stores still get the higher income tech workers, but Walmart has suffered severe customer losses.

People have indeed fled the Bay Area for Sacramento or the cheaper distant areas of California. People have moved to Modesto, Fresno, Bakersfield, etc. for cheaper living.

If I had to predict which Walmart stores will close soon I would pick the suburban Bay Area stores. They are ghost towns. There are few customers and they are in bad shape: Pleasanton, Martinez, etc. The suburban middle class prefer Target and many would never set foot in a Walmart.

Walmart opened too many stores in the Bay Area. They opened up 2 stores in Fremont when only 1 store was adequate. This caused the sales numbers at both stores to look really low.

Originally there was only 1 store in San Leandro in 1999. Then Walmart opened up another in San Leandro and another one city over in Oakland. They all cannibalized the original store and sales numbers dropped. You cannot expect customers to magically appear out of nowhere. Eventually the Oakland store closed and the 2 San Leandro stores are still losing customers. People are leaving the high rent Bay Area to look for jobs and cheaper rent.