Walmart Stores Inc.’s plan to shutter hundreds of stores, will not include any Massachusetts Walmart locations. But the company will close two Sam’s Club stores in the state, one in Fall River and the other Seekonk, the company said Friday.
Overall, the world’s largest retailer will shutter 269 stores globally and 154 in the United States.
Word of the closures was accompanied by an announcement that Walmart would open hundreds of new stores in the U.S. and abroad. The company had been in a year-long process of reviewing store performance and other factors in order to make the changes.
Most of the closures will be of Walmart’s 102 Walmart Express stores, but other closures include 23 Neighborhood Markets, 12 so-called Supercenters, six discount centers and four Sam’s Clubs. Walmart will also close 15 stores outside the United States, including 60 recently closed stores in Brazil that were losing money.
Among the stores Walmart will open in new locations are 50-60 Supercenters, as many as 95 Neighborhood Markets and 7-10 Sam’s Clubs in the U.S. Abroad, the company will open as many as 240 stores during the coming year.
“Actively managing our portfolio of assets is essential to maintaining a healthy business,” Walmart chief executive Doug McMillon said in a statement. “Closing stores is never an easy decision, but it is necessary to keep the company strong and positioned for the future. It’s important to remember that we’ll open well more than 300 stores around the world next year. So we are committed to growing, but we are being disciplined about it.”
Megan Woolhouse can be reached at megan.woolhouse@globe.com