Wal-Mart to close Neighborhood Market in Little Rock

Wal-Mart Stores is closing a Neighborhood Market in Little Rock on Nov. 2.

Store No. 5666 at 2510 Cantrell Road opened in mid- 2012 but over the years the store has not been able to meet the required financial guidelines outlined by management. Given there are seven other Wal-Mart stores within 8 miles, the retailer has opted to shutter the Cantrell Road store, according to Wal-Mart corporate spokeswoman Anne Hatfield.

She told Talk Business & Politics the 100 or so employees were told of the store’s pending closure on Thursday (Oct. 5). She said they will be offered opportunities to transfer to stores in the area. She said the Cantrell Road store, at 65,000 square feet, is a good bit larger than the footprint today. The pharmacy located in Store No. 5666 will transfer prescriptions out to a location of the customer’s choosing prior to Nov. 2. Hatfield said Wal-Mart will automatically transfer prescriptions to the nearby Wal-Mart Supercenter at 2700 S. Shackleford Road, unless customers put in their own transfer requests.

Hatfield there are currently no other store closures planned in Arkansas. That said, Walmart U.S. CEO Greg Foran is continually looking at individual store performance metrics and has previously said stores are closed when it makes financial sense to do without too much compromise to the customer’s convenience.

Between 2013 and 2015, Walmart U.S. accelerated its Neighborhood Market format by adding more than 400 new grocery units, which many times were in close proximity to Wal-Mart Supercenters, offering bigger profit opportunity than the smaller stores.