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Walmart Announces to Shut Down More Stores by 2024

Walmart Announces to Shut Down More Stores by 2024

As 2024 draws to a close, the retail sector’s terrain becomes more apparent. While some businesses are experiencing success, others are facing difficulties. Giants in the retail industry including Macy’s, Kohl’s, Family Dollar, and Dollar Tree have already announced that they would be closing their stores due to a drop in foot traffic and revenues.

Effect of Economic Conditions

Walmart Announces to Shut Down More Stores by 2024

Image Source: news-journal.com

Record-high rates of inventory shrinkage from theft are making matters worse for the retail industry. Furthermore, consumers have been forced to tighten their budgets due to skyrocketing costs in a number of areas, including food and energy, which has resulted in a decrease in spending on discretionary products.

Consumer Price Index Insights

With prices up 3.2% from the prior year and 0.4% in February, the most recent Consumer Price Index (CPI) statistics highlight the inflationary pressures on consumers. Important expenses like clothing, petrol, and energy have seen significant hikes, severely taxing household finances.

Walmart's Reaction

These difficulties have affected even the massive retail chain Walmart. The firm shuttered about 24 locations in 2023 as a result of poor performance and the slump in the economy. Walmart continues to lose money even after making large expenditures in some areas due to ongoing difficulties.

Announcements of Store Closures

Walmart declared the closing of two locations in California in January 2024 alone. The retail behemoth has now announced intentions to close two more stores, bringing the total for the year’s shop closures to six. The impacted establishments are located in California and the Baltimore region of Maryland.

Reasons for Closure

Walmart did not disclose specifics, although it blamed poor performance for the closures. The choice demonstrates the business’s dedication to maximising the variety of stores it owns and guaranteeing its long-term survival in a demanding retail market.

In conclusion, the news that Walmart will close its stores in 2024 highlights how the retail industry is changing and how important it is for businesses to adjust to shifting consumer demands and market circumstances. Strategic choices like closing stores become crucial for preserving growth and competitiveness as the retail environment changes.

Sam Walton

The Success Story of Sam Walton: Founder of Walmart

Sam Walton, an American business tycoon, is most known for establishing Walmart and Sam’s Club in 1962 and 1983, respectively. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. expanded to become both the largest private employer and the largest company in the world by revenue.

Sam Walton
Image Source: forbes.com

Walton formerly held the title of the richest person in America. His family has maintained its position as the wealthiest in the United States for a number of years running, with a net wealth of over $240.6 billion as of 2022.

Early Life

Sam Walton made the decision to join the US Army Intelligence Corps in order to serve his country. He was a Captain who was stationed in Salt Lake City, Utah. Sam spent three years at his job in the military.

Also Read: Journey of Databricks from Academia To A $6.2 Billion Business

Sam Walton made the decision to start a store selling inexpensive products after leaving the military. He made certain that there was always fresh food on the shelves. With the aid of a $20,000 borrowing from his father-in-law and $5,000 in savings from his time in the military, he was able to launch the business.

On April 5, 1992, the day after Walmart celebrated its 30th anniversary, Sam Walton passed away. There were 1735 stores globally, with $5 billion in yearly sales, at that time.

Success Story

In 1945, Sam Walton acquired a lease on a Ben Franklin store location. His objective was to sell goods for a low price in order to increase sales at a low-profit margin. When the store first opened, it had an annual income of $105,000; by the fifth year, it had increased to $250,000.

Sam Walton had to shut down the store once the five-year lease came to an end since he was unable to extend it. Walton’s Five and Dime was the name of the new business he later founded in Bentonville. The Walmart Museum now occupies this location.

The first real Walmart shop debuted in Rogers, Arkansas, on July 2, 1962. Sam Walton’s vision for the Wal-Mart Discount Store was to stock it exclusively with goods created in the United States and provide them for low prices. Sam took sure to place his stores outside of the major cities, in the smaller communities.

Also Read: The richest man in the video game business

Due to the substantial discounts, customers never dried up at the store’s entrance. Sam wanted to ensure that common people could afford basic necessities. The respectable businessman’s desire for success became stronger with time.

He persisted in opening ever more Wal-Mart locations across America. Sam had already established 24 stores by 1967, and they were experiencing astronomical sales all throughout the country.

The business was incorporated under the name Walmart Inc. on October 31, 1969, and changed its name to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in 1970. The massive retail store became publicly traded in 1970 and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

The business expanded significantly in the 1980s when sales reached $1 billion. Walton passed away from multiple myeloma, a kind of blood cancer, on 5th April 1992 (three months before Walmart celebrated its thirtieth anniversary) in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Walmart Launches Delivery Unlimited, a Subscription Service for Grocery Delivery

Amazon announced its own delivery service to support its one-day delivery service, and recently, another tech giant, Target, also launched its one-day delivery service for the online purchases. And now, Walmart also revealed that it is going to start an unlimited grocery delivery service called Delivery Unlimited for its customers.

walmart
Image Source: pymnts.com

Grocery deliveries are picking quite a hike, and now, Walmart is also looking forward to serving its customers with unlimited deliveries. The company is already providing its customers with delivery services, costing them between $5 and $10 fee per delivery, for the purchases they make online. The company also has been providing its customers with a monthly fee for a limited number of deliveries through sign-ups.

But now, with a $98 yearly subscription, the customers will get access to the unlimited deliveries on online purchase from the Walmart website. The company is also offering its customers a monthly subscription of $12.95 for the deliveries, such that they do not have to pay the pre-order fees on the deliveries. The users just need to go to the Walmart website, and after, making purchases, they will be asked for the delivery options upon the checkout, from where they can opt for monthly or yearly subscription.

The subscription service from Walmart can be a big money saver for those customers, who regularly purchase grocery from Walmart. Unlike the other grocery sellers, Walmart does not have its own delivery service or has got a contract with a single delivery partner. In fact, it is tied up with various delivery providers, including Point Pickup, Skipcart, AxleHire, Roadie, Postmates, and DoorDash.

Walmart has even introduced a free and one-day delivery service to its customers for orders above $35. Along with that, it has also started an in-house delivery, through which the delivery boys will place the ordered food items directly into the customer’s refrigerator.

The news was first reported by TechCrunch, while the company has not given any statements over the matter, not even over its site’s FAQ section. Though, one of the Walmart Store’s Instagram account had mentioned the same in a post in March this year.

The Former Google and Amazon Executive Suresh Kumar is the New CTO and CDO at Walmart

walmart
Image Source: courier-journal.com

A veteran from Google, Microsoft, and Amazon, Suresh Kumar now holds the post of CTO at Walmart. Walmart announced today that it has hired Suresh Kumar, who is an ex-Google executive, for the position of chief technology officer and chief development officer.

Suresh Kumar is a former IITian and has got a B.Tech degree from IIT Madras. He also holds a PhD degree in Engineering from Princeton University. His work history has been quite terrific, as he has already worked with the biggest tech giants in the world, Google, Amazon and Microsoft in his 25 years long career.

Suresh Kumar worked as the corporate vice president of Cloud Infrastructure and Operations at Microsoft for over three years. He recently left Google, where he was working as VP and general manager of the display, video, app ads and analytics, for past one year. He has also been a research staff member at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center.

The most important job role that he did hold in the past was while working with Amazon, the biggest rival for Walmart. He has worked with Amazon for over 15 years, holding the various positions in this long span of time. Before leaving the company, he worked as Vice President of the Worldwide Retail Systems and Retail Services department at Amazon.

At Walmart, as the CTO, Suresh Kumar has replaced Jeremy King, who has now joined as the head of engineering at Pinterest. Suresh Kumar will be reporting to the Walmart CEO Doug McMillon directly, and all the Walmart’s major wings including the Walmart U.S./WalmartLabs, Sam’s Club, International technology and Global Business Services, will be under his charge. With the help of Suresh Kumar’ vast experience, Walmart wants to enhance its eCommerce business and utilize the investment it has done in the past few years in the same field.

“Suresh has a unique understanding of the intersection of technology and retail, including supply chain, and has deep experience in advertising, cloud and machine learning. And, he has a track record of working in partnership with business teams to drive results,” said McMillon in the announcement.

Walmart Launches its First AI Store, Isn’t Trying to Replace Humans with Machines

Last year, Amazon launched a chain of its AI-powered convenience stores, i.e. Amazon Go. The stores are cashier-less and have cameras all around in the stores to charge the customers automatically. Yesterday, Walmart, the biggest retail store franchise, also launched an AI-powered store, i.e. Intelligent Retail Lab (IRL), in Levittown, New York, which is a bit different from its contemporary Amazon’s cashier-less stores.

Walmart has launched a store similar to its other stores, except it will be operated by intelligent technology. The new Walmart store, like Amazon Go, has got cameras over the ceiling, but these cameras have not been installed to automatically charge the customers but will keep the track of the inventory of the store.

walmart IRL store
Image Source: Tech Crunch

Yes! The company has confirmed that now the store will be able to manage the inventory through AI. Reportedly, if any of the items get out of stock, even from a single shelf, the cameras will inform the sales persons around, to restock the shelves. Also, if a fresh fruit has been on the shelf for a longer time, the cameras will indicate the sales persons to replace that fruit with a fresh one. E.g. if bananas on a shelf have got bruises, the cameras will ask the salesperson to replace them. This way, the salespersons will not have to roam around the store all the time to keep a check on the inventory and will only go to the back-inventory when the cameras will notify them for replacement or to re-stock the shelves.

Since operating so many cameras all the time will require a lot of data and data storage, the company has built a data centre in the inventory itself. Though the data will be stored only for a week, the sensors and the cameras will pump out 1.6 TB of data per second.

Since it is not a cashier-less store, like Amazon Go, the store is having over 100 employees and is selling over 30,000 items. Also, the store is a 50,000 square foot store, having giant servers bathed in the blue light situated inside the store, which can be easily seen by the public. Also, the retailer has built an AI-powered informational store and a Welcome store for its customers, where they can know about its technical specifications.

For the people who are with the shoppers, can spend their time in front of the AI-powered interactive wall, built inside the store. The wall is able to imitate the body gestures and postures by estimating body positions and is quite a good pass time.

By far, the new Walmart store is quite interesting, and it seems that the company is trying to take full advantage of AI by making its use in most practical ways. And, the company has ensured that it is not up to replacing the human jobs at all, but is trying to reduce the workload for its staff.

Walmart to Replace Apple as No. 3 Online Retailer in the U.S. by the End of 2018

According to a report released on Friday, Walmart has overtaken Apple as America’s third-largest online retailer. Last year, Apple was at the third position, after Amazon and eBay in the list of the top retailers of the U.S. with 3.8% share in the total online sale (2017). Due to a decrease in the sales of Apple’s smartphones and electronic devices this year, Walmart was successful in surpassing Apple and taking over its position on the list.

walmart
Image Source: pymnts.com

The eMarketers had estimated a boost in the sales of Walmart that it will have approximately 3.7% of the share in the online sales in the U.S., but as the Walmart’s online business is growing quickly, its share in the total online sales of the U.S., raised to 4 per cent. Apple managed to get only a per cent rise in its online sales from the previous year, i.e., 3.9 per cent. It is expected that the growth in the sales of Walmart would grow by 39.4 per cent, just behind the sales growth of Wayfair, that is expected to be 40.1 per cent, by the end of 2018.

The latest prediction by the eMarketers shows that by the end of the year Walmart will capture $20.91 billion online retail spending this year. Walmart, itself, had also reported its third-quarter profits with revenue of $124.9 billion, 1.4 per cent up from a year ago. The company has seen a rapid growth in its sales due to its efforts through every means.

Wallmart has adopted the right technology to ensure a better customer experience, providing them with an omnichannel platform to use all its services. The app provided by Wallmart helps in easy shopping as well as let them track their orders and locate the items in the store using digital maps. In the holiday season, it has also got rid of the $35 fees for its two-day delivery and has offered no-delivery charges for other delivery options. After Wallmart, the two-day delivery service has also been adopted by Amazon for its festive-season sales.

Walmart U.S. CEO Greg Foran said, “We can provide a much better customer experience because we are in stock of the right item, at the right time at the same time it is going to help us be much more precise.”

The tech giant, along with its online retail business, is also planning to raise outlook of its physical stores to increase up to 3 per cent share in its sales for the fiscal year 2019, targeting the same years earning up to $4.65 to $4.80 a share.