Six Oklahoma Walmart Express Stores To Close This Month

Walmart  announced Friday it plans to close 269 stores around the world, including six of its stores in Oklahoma.

The six stores are in Okemah, Luther, Prague, Stroud, Wewoka and Watonga.  The retailer said all six Walmart Express stores will close on January 28.

Walmart Express is the retailers smallest format stores which had been around since 2011. 

The store in Okemah hasn't even been open a full year, it opened early last year - just long enough for folks to get used to it. 

The Okemah Chamber of Commerce says its Walmart employs 30 people, some full time, some part time. 

The chamber says the employees just found out Friday, and it's possible they could be transferred to other Walmart stores.     The chamber director says losing the store will be a hit to the community economically because Walmart was bringing in people from some of the smaller surrounding towns. 

It was also keeping those in town from making the 20 minute drive to the next closest Walmart.

Residents say this store was so busy, more check out lanes had to be added. Those who shop at the store say losing Walmart will be a great loss to the community in more ways than one.

"It was horrible, terrible," Okemah resident Christine Clark said of the news.

"There's stuff that they have there that other places don't have locally and also, I work for the church that has the food cupboard, St. Paul's, and it [Walmart] has helped so many people by giving food to us to reach out and help them."

In the U.S., Walmart said it is closing 154 locations, including Walmart Express, Neighborhood Markets, Supercenters and Sam's Club stores.

The Bentonville, Arkansas company says today’s action follows a thorough review of Walmart’s nearly 11,600 worldwide stores.  

“Actively managing our portfolio of assets is essential to maintaining a healthy business,” said Doug McMillon, president and CEO, Walmart Stores, Inc. 

“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.”

The company says about 16,000 associates will be impacted by the decision, including about 10,000 of them in the U.S.