Walmart Inc. will close three of its Neighborhood Market stores in San Antonio next month, company spokeswoman Anne Hatfield said Wednesday.
The three stores are at 6938 Walzem Road near Windcrest, 3418 E. Southcross on the Southeast Side and 3847 Pleasanton Road on the South Side. The stores will close on Oct. 12. Each store has about 70 employees, who were informed of the news Wednesday morning.
The company is organizing transfers for those who would like to be moved to another area store. Hatfield said there are enough job openings locally to support all employees who would like to be transferred.
While no details were given about the reason for the store closures, Hatfield said the closings were isolated incidences and that the company's Neighborhood Market format is strong overall. All of the locations are within three miles of larger Walmart stores.
"These kinds of decisions are made on a case-by-case basis and there are many factors that go into them. Retail is changing, and we want to always make sure we're meeting customer's needs the best that we can," she said.
Last November, Walmart closed another Neighborhood Market store on Nacogdoches Road. It also closed a Sam's Club on San Pedro Avenue in January.
After the three stores close, Walmart's Neighborhood Market format will have six locations in the San Antonio area. The former Neighborhood Market store on Nacogdoches Road is currently for sale and listed for $3.7 million by SRS Real Estate Partners. The former Sam's Club is being listed by CBRE for an undisclosed amount.
The three stores were all built in 2015 and combine to more than 123,000 square feet.
While retail net absorption has been slow this year, accounting for just 90,265 square feet in the second quarter in a report by CBE Group Inc., vacancy rates have been very low, at just 4.1 percent during the second quarter.
While Walmart's grocery footprint is shrinking, the company is steering efforts towards renovations to support its grocery pickup and delivery businesses at other stores. Hatfield said the company is spending $277 million in Texas on these kinds of store renovations. Grocery pickup is currently available at 24 stores in the San Antonio area and Walmart's online grocery delivery service was launched in San Antonio earlier this summer.