How many Walmart locations across the US closed or were slated to close in 2025 by state?
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Executive summary
Reporting on Walmart store closures for 2025 is inconsistent: multiple outlets published lists saying roughly 10–11 U.S. Walmarts would close in 2025 across about six states (with frequent mentions of California and Georgia) [1] [2] [3]. Walmart and a Fast Company fact-check say those circulating lists were false and the company told Fast Company it “will not be closing any of its stores this year,” creating a direct contradiction in reporting [4].
1. Conflicting counts: small handful vs. “none” — the head-to-head
Several news sites and aggregators published lists claiming Walmart planned to close about 10–11 stores in 2025, often specifying affected states including California, Georgia, Maryland, Ohio and Wisconsin and sometimes naming individual cities [1] [2] [5]. By contrast, Fast Company reports that Walmart told the outlet the widely circulated list is false and that the company “will not be closing any of its stores this year,” citing Walmart directly and calling earlier lists erroneous [4]. Available sources do not mention an independently verified, company-published spreadsheet enumerating closures by state beyond these competing claims.
2. Which states are named repeatedly in reporting
Across multiple lists and write-ups, California and Georgia appear most often as states with alleged closures; other states cited in various pieces include Maryland, Ohio, Colorado and Wisconsin [1] [6] [5] [3]. Some outlets provide city-level detail for California — naming San Diego, El Cajon, West Covina, Fremont and Granite Bay — while others give only state-level summaries [5]. Fast Company’s reporting, again, directly disputes these state-level lists by quoting Walmart saying the closure list circulating online is false [4].
3. How the discrepancy arose: recycled lists and fact-checks
The narrative appears to have spread from aggregated lists and viral posts that were not checked with Walmart; outlets repeated those lists and some regional sites wrote stories tailored to local readers [6] [7]. Fast Company and others pushed back after contacting Walmart, which said the 11-store closure story conflated closures from 2024 with unconfirmed 2025 listings and that the company has no plan to close stores in 2025 as claimed [4]. That fact-check explicitly links the purported 11 closures to actions in 2024, not new 2025 decisions [4].
4. Company strategy context cited in reporting
Reporting that both questions closures and recounts them also notes Walmart is expanding other parts of its network in 2025 — opening or renovating dozens of fuel and convenience stations (more than 45 in some reports) and planning hundreds of new or converted stores over the next several years — which the company highlights when denying large-scale store shutdowns [8] [2] [4]. Analysts quoted in some pieces frame closures as “optimizing store performance” while the company emphasizes growth in higher-margin areas such as fuel, Walmart+ and marketplace services [9] [5].
5. Local impacts and why readers care — competing narratives
Outlets warning of closures frame immediate local impacts — lost jobs, reduced access to groceries in some communities — while Walmart’s rebuttal reframes the story as one about selective past closures and ongoing investment elsewhere [1] [4] [9]. Some local sites reassure readers their state (e.g., Texas, Louisiana) currently had “no stores on the 2025 closure list,” repeating the patchwork reporting and emphasizing uncertainty [10] [11].
6. What can be reliably concluded from available reporting
Available sources show two clear facts: multiple outlets published lists claiming roughly 10–11 Walmart locations would close or were slated to close in 2025 across several states [1] [2] [3]; and Walmart told Fast Company those circulating lists are false and that it is not closing stores in 2025, calling earlier reports erroneous and noting the 11-store figure pertained to 2024 actions [4]. There is no single, corroborated, company-published list in the provided reporting that maps confirmed 2025 closures by state; available sources do not mention such a definitive list.
7. How to verify for your state: practical next steps
If you need a state-by-state, definitive answer, check Walmart’s official press releases or contact the local store manager or Walmart corporate communications — the provided reporting shows media lists were disputed by Walmart itself and that direct confirmation from the company matters [4]. Local newsrooms that first published lists may correct or update their stories if Walmart’s denial is upheld; readers should look for updated reporting or an explicit Walmart statement naming any confirmed 2025 closures [4] [8].
Limitations: reporting is contradictory in the available sources and no single authoritative, company-published 2025 closure-by-state list is present in this dataset; local lists circulated widely but were directly disputed by Walmart [1] [4].