It is part of a global downsizing that will shutter 269 stores around the world out of Walmart's nearly 11,600 stores.
The smaller-format store format had been tested since 2011.
In addition to all the Express stores, 23 Neighborhood Markets, 12 Supercenters, seven stores in Puerto Rico, six discount centers and four Sam’s Clubs will be closed.
About 16,000 associates will be affected worldwide - roughly 10,000 of whom are in the U.S. - according to the company.
It said more than 95 percent of the closed stores in the U.S. are within 10 miles on average of another Walmart, so the hope is those associates can gain employment at nearby stores. In cases where that isn't available, transition assistance will be available, the company said.
“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.”
However, some in affected communities were dismayed at the decision.
Michael Huffman of Waskom, TX, called the decision to close the Walmart Express in his town "a very bad and immoral corporate decision."
He said, "Walmart ran the only other grocery store in town out of business. ... There are a lot of elderly people in Waskom who need a grocery store."
Walmart said the stores it will close "represent less than 1 percent of both global square footage and revenue." The closings represent about 2 percent of Walmart stores globally, Walmart said.
The Bentonville, AR, big-box giant garnered a fiscal year 2015 revenue of $485.7 billion and employs about 2.2 million associates worldwide.
The East Orange New Jersey police department was the first U.S. agency to install a Smart Imaging Sensor system as part of its broader network of security cameras around the city.
These smart sensors process images that the high-resolution cameras record in real time and can automatically detect and/or predict when a crime is occurring. When it senses something it will alert law enforcement officials instantly.
Government agencies and business around the world have already taken notice of predictive sensors.
Recently, an automated camera system called AIsight (pronounced eyesight), was installed in Boston after the 2013 marathon bombing, that monitors camera feeds in real time and alerts authorities if it spots unusual activity.
AIsight cameras use a statistical method called machine learning to learn what is normal for an area and then alerts on abnormal activity. That could be picking up anything from unusual loitering to activity occurring in restricted areas.
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Who doesn’t want faster, bigger (or smaller), more efficient? Take wireless mobile telecommunications. Our current broadband cellular network platform, 4G (or fourth generation), allows us to transmit data faster than 3G and everything that preceded. We can access information faster now than ever before in history. What more could we want? Oh, yes, transmission speeds powerful enough to accommodate the (rather horrifying) so-called Internet of Things. Which brings us to 5G.
Until now, mobile broadband networks have been designed to meet the needs of people. But 5G has been created with machines’ needs in mind, offering low-latency, high-efficiency data transfer. It achieves this by breaking data down into smaller packages, allowing for faster transmission times. Whereas 4G has a fifty-millisecond delay, 5G data transfer will offer a mere one-millisecond delay–we humans won’t notice the difference, but it will permit machines to achieve near-seamless communication. Which in itself may open a whole Pandora’s box of trouble for us – and our planet.
More bandwidth – more dangers of 5G
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